There was a magical half hour in the Rogers Cup players' lounge on Sunday when Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal engaged a conversation with Sidney Crosby.
The three were off in a corner and the other people in the crowded room gave them wide berth to have an uninterrupted - and private - chat.
A small portion was overheard as Crosby inquired about the long tennis schedule, and Federer told him the players had some time off in November and December off to prepare for the following year.
Earlier, there had been a Federer-Crosby photo op with a birthday cake. The Swiss great turned 29 on Sunday while the Canadian Olympic hockey hero had his 23rd birthday on Saturday.
"I'm older, you can tell right?" Federer joked a one point.
In a subsequent scrum with reporters, Crosby said of Federer: "It's pretty neat, I just met him a few minutes ago. It's an opportunity to meet him and some of the guys who are playing here."
Crosby said he is a Federer fan and plays tennis when he can in the off-season. He had hoped to hit a few balls with the six-time Wimbledon champion on Sunday but rain disrupted activity on the practice courts.
The Pittsburgh Penguin captain also revealed that he attended the 2008 U.S. Open final when Federer beat Andy Murray.
In Toronto for a few days, Crosby may return to the tournament this week, with Tuesday night a possibility because that is when Federer is scheduled to play his opening match.
Andy Murray and Daniel Nestor took part in a celebrity doubles exhibition on the centre court at the Rogers Cup on Saturday. They joked and played with, among others, hockey players Dominic Moore and Nick Kypreos, and took a few shots at each other.
Nestor actually dinged Murray pretty good in the side with a smash from near the net.
"It's typical, I expected it from him," Murray joked. "I told him afterward - I know him really well and we get on pretty well - that he's very immature for a 37 year old."
He added that there was no harm done. "The (pink-coloured) balls are soft and actually it was fine. It hit me right on the bone so it wasn't too bad."
The best laid plans… Tennis Canada tried something new this year: announcing Saturday when the top four seeds would play their opening matches: Novak Djokovic on Tuesday afternoon, Roger Federer on Tuesday night, Andy Murray on Wednesday afternoon and Rafael Nadal on Wednesday night.
It provided a spark in ticket sales, with buyers able to know days in advance when their favourites would be playing. Then on Sunday, with the usual complications of injuries, doubles and players coming in from the previous week's tournament in Washington, it was decided to play Nadal and Djokovic's opening round doubles as the second match on Monday evening.
That resulted in Djokovic's singles match on Tuesday being moved to Wednesday afternoon.
Rogers Cup officials had egg on their face for Djokovic fans, but they will attempt to compensate and accommodate those who had bought tickets to see him in a fair manner.
Roger Federer's 29th birthday on Sunday does not mean he is about to stop accumulating major titles, but the days of him winning 11 of 16 Grand Slams as he did between 2004 and 2007 are likely over.
For the record, the last player to win a Grand Slam at 29 or older was Andre Agassi at the 2003 Australian Open when he was 32.
Marin Cilic, the Rogers Cup No. 11 seed, has the shortest trip to the tournament every day. The Croat, 22, is staying at the Executive Learning Centre at the Schulich School of Business on the campus of York University not far from the Rexall Centre. Cilic's coach, Bob Brett, a consultant with Tennis Canada, is also at the 60-room hotel, which is owned by York.
The wave of the future
A hot topic of the 2010 Rogers Cup events, both in Toronto this week and in Montreal next week, will be the playing of the tournaments simultaneously in the two cities next year.
That is happening for the simple reason that the trend on the tour is toward combined men's and women's tournaments. By 2011, six of the eight men's Masters 1000 events - like the Rogers Cup - will be combined with the women.
It has simply become the accepted way to go with major events modelled on the super-successful four Grand Slams.
Cincinnati, which is becoming a mixed tournament in 2011, will continue to be held two weeks before the U.S. Open, just as its men's Masters 1000 event was. That meant the Canadian Premier Five, the Rogers Cup, had to move.
It couldn't go four weeks before the U.S. Open, and there was never any question of the men's event moving back to the four weeks prior spot because it's simply too soon to expect European players to come to North America after the hectic spring season.
So, in 2011 the Rogers Cups will both be three weeks before the U.S. Open and become a so-called "virtually combined" event for the purposes of the television signal sent out nationally and internationally.
The schedule change is no slight to the Canadian events, just an adjustment to the move toward having more mixed events.
In reality, the origins can be traced back to 1981 when then tournament sponsor Imperial Tobacco wanted an event in Montreal, where it is headquartered. That meant splitting the men and women mixed Canadian Open tournament in Toronto between the two cities.
The bottom line now is that most believe the three-weeks-before the U.S. Open date is the best in terms of attracting players. The majority of the big names have had a long enough break after Wimbledon and are eager to play in Canada.
Cincinnati, getting basically the same men's and women's fields a week later, is more likely to be vulnerable to player withdrawals because of fatigue and/or injury after the Canadian tournaments.