OMNISPORT

Home-town favourite Eugenie Bouchard will enter the 2015 Rogers Cup with a new coach but despite a strong field in Toronto, it will be hard to deny Serena Williams her fifth title of the year.

Sixteen of the world's top 17 female players will compete at the WTA Premier event but Williams has form on her side, as she will return to Toronto having won her past 11 straight matches in Canada's largest city after claiming the rotating tournament's trophy in 2011 and 2013.

On even-numbered years, Montreal hosts the Rogers Cup.

Williams, who missed the Bank of the West Classic due to an elbow complaint, has also been unstoppable at major tournaments this year, with the world number one on track for a Grand Slam.

Last year, however, Williams was defeated by her sister Venus in the semi-finals in Montreal.

The one player in the WTA's top 17, who will not be playing, is Maria Sharapova, who pulled out of the Rogers Cup on Friday with a strained leg muscle.

Bouchard should be back in action despite withdrawing from last week's Citi Open in Washington with an abdominal injury, with the 21-year-old Canadian claiming she has been "healing well" and is keen to get "back to competition".

The world number 25 has struggled this year with form and injuries and failed to win a match at the 2014 Rogers Cup, and has decided a coaching change was needed after splitting with Sam Sumyk.

Bouchard had only worked with Sumyk for six months but has employed Marko Dragic on a temporary basis as she aims to get back into the WTA's top 10.

"I just feel like I haven't been quite myself, my confident, aggressive game lately," Bouchard said in Toronto on Friday.

Reigning champion Agnieszka Radwanska will make her first appearance on the WTA Tour since her semi-final exit at Wimbledon, where she lost to Garbine Muguruza.

The Pole has reached the final four of her last three tournaments, including the final at the Aegon International in Eastbourne, but she has not won a trophy since the Rogers Cup.