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More than half the men’s seeds in play, including four of the Top 10, were shocked out of the ATP Rogers Cup in Montreal on a chaotic Wednesday.
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No. 3 Stan Wawrinka, No. 5 Tomas Berdych, No. 6 Marin Cilic, No. 9 Gilles Simon, No. 14 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 15 Gael Monfils were all shown the exit, with unseeded Americans and Aussies doing the majority of the upset damage.
American qualifier Donald Young sent out the No. 5-seeded Berdych 7-6(5), 6-3, and Jack Sock downed the No. 14 Dimitrov 5-7, 7-6(5), 7-5.
“I haven’t played him before so it was a first time, I didn’t know what to expect. I know he hits big,” Young said of Berdych. “I hadn’t started as well as I wanted to and I was missing a lot of shots but then I started to relax a little bit and with confidence from winning a few matches I felt pretty good towards the end.”
Young will next meet fellow qualifier Ernests Gulbis who defeated Czech Lukas Rosol earlier.
Sock saved a match point against Dimitrov in his second win over the Bulgarian this year.
Other upset-makers were Aussie Nick Kyrgios beating the No. 3 Wawrinka 6-7(5), 6-3, 4-0 ret. (back injury) in the late night match; Aussie Bernard Tomic ousting No. 6 Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-4; Russian Mikhail Youzhny defeating No. 9 Gilles Simon 6-1, 6-4; and big-serving Gilles Muller edging No. 15 Gael Monfils 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(4).
Top 10 seeded winners on the day were No. 2 Andy Murray over Tommy Robredo 6-4, 7-5; No. 4 Kei Nishikori rolling past Pablo Andujar 6-3, 6-3; No. 7 Rafael Nadal working past Sergiy Stakhovsky 7-6(4), 6-3; and No. 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga outlasting Roberto Bautista Agut 5-7, 7-6(6), 7-5.
“This is a part of the season that I won zero points last year,” said Nadal, who will next meet Russian Mikhail Youzhny. “Every match that I won are points that I add to the computer for my ranking. That’s important for me today. Every victory is important for me. That was a good one. Let’s try tomorrow.”
Kyrgios will next meet No. 16 John Isner, who on Wednesday beat beat Vasek Pospisil 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-3.
On the women’s sides five seeds advanced, and five seeds fell on an equally ugly day at the Rogers Cup in Toronto where a former No. 1 and a former two-time Slam champ were shown the door in second round play.
Not much of a surprise was No. 3 Petra Kvitova going out 6-2, 6-3 to former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka after the former announced she was battling mono, but a big surprise was the continued breakthrough of Swiss Belinda Bencic, who out-steadied No. 4 seed Caroline Wozniacki 7-5, 7-5.
“It’s two great wins for me, of course, in two days,” said Bencic, coming off a victory over homecountry favorite Genie Bouchard. “I really feel good here in Toronto — I like it very much — so I was hoping it could be a good tournament.”
Bencic will next meet Sabine Lisicki, a 7-6(3), 6-4 winner over Czech Barbora Strycova.
Orchestrating other second-round upsets were Russian Daria Gavrilova coming from a set down to beat No. 7 Lucie Safarova 4-6, 7-5, 7-5; Ukranian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko rolling past No. 8 Garbine Muguruza 7-5, 6-1; and Slovenian qualifier Polona Hercog outlasting No. 11 Ekaterina Makarova 6-2, 6-7(7), 7-5.
Top 10 seeds avoiding the upsets were No. 2 Simona Halep beating former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic 6-3, 6-4; No. 5 Ana Ivanovic edging Belarus qualifier Olga Govortsova 6-4, 7-6(4); and No. 6 Aggie Radwanska defeating German Julia Goerges 7-5, 6-3.
“I tried to be aggressive and take the ball as soon as possible, because I know she has good defense,” said Halep on winning in her first appearance since Wimbledon. “I always played about three hours with her and always had tough matches. I had a long break at home, so it was difficult to come here and right away face one of the hardest players in the world, but I just did everything I could to win.”
Next up for Halep is No. 13 Angelique Kerber, who eased past Puerto Rican qualifier Monica Puig 6-2, 6-3.
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