No fewer than four players whom Marion has played in the past six weeks, feature in her 14 player section of the draw for the Rogers Cup. those players are; Anna Chakvetadze, Ai Sugiyama, Alisa Kleybanova, and Bethanie Mattek.
Avid Marion fans will quickly tally up that it is 3 wins to 1 in favor of Marion against those players since June.
Narrowly missing out on a first round bye, Marion has been seeded 10th in today's draw held in Montreal.
The seeds in Marions section awarded byes are Maria Sharapova (3), and Anna Chakvetadze (8).
The other noteworthy player in Marion's section are Nicole Vaidisova and Shahar Peer, Both of those players have seemingly been in freefall throughout 2008. However one ought to be discreetly reminded that Marion was knocked out of the Rogers Cup in 2006 by none other than Shahar Peer.
The main draw itself contains 64 players. A big all-star field commensurate with the tournaments status as a tier 1 event. Six wins in a row earns 430 ranking points and a big cheque... Just five consecutive victories is all it will take for one of the top eight seeds.
Whilst the Rogers Cup has suffered a little from players withdrawing in recent years, expect a full top class field from now on following the tightening of WTA rules.
Won by Justine Henin in 2007, Ana Ivanovic is top seed at French Canada's premier womens tennis event this time around.
Given that the top five womens players in the world will be busy representing their countries at the Beijing Olympics soon, it will be interesting to see if any minds are focused elsewhere this week.
Last year was Marion's best performance so far in Montreal. She reached the quarter final, defeating this years French Open finalist Dinara Safina en route. Unfortunately Marion was forced to retire during her last 8 match against Yan Zi due to viral illness.
Marion will play a qualifier in the first round on Monday.
More news as and when.
