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And then there was one.
ADHEREL
No. 4 seed Milos Raonic became the only Canadian left in the Rogers Cup, otherwise known as the Canadian Open, as round 2 of the event was completed on Wednesday and four Canadians were shown the exit.
Grigor Dimitrov in the final night match ushered out Canadian teen sensation Denis Shapovalov, who in his opening round upset Nick Kyrgios, but the lanky Canuck could not hang with the Bulgarian, falling 6-4, 6-3.
He was joined in the Canadian “L” column by wildcard Steven Diez who fell to No. 12 seed Bernard Tomic 6-3, 7-6(4), Peter Polansky who was punished by Radek “The Worm” Stepanek 7-6(5), 6-4, and Vasek Pospisil who succumbed to No. 10 Gael Monfils 7-6(6), 6-0.
Raonic beat Yen-Hsun “Rendy” Lu 6-3, 6-3, to set up a third-round meeting with American qualifier Jared Donaldson, who defeated newly-shaved headed Fabio Fognini 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
“It’s a good way to start the tournament,” said Raonic, playing his first match since reaching the Wimbledon final. “I look to continue hopefully playing better the next match, which I know is going to be necessary. I would like to do well here. I probably put some extra pressure on myself there. I think I got that behind me very quickly, and I played a solid match start to finish.”
There were upsets-a-plenty on Wednesday as South African Kevin Anderson advanced when No. 6 seed Dominic Thiem retired trailing 1-4 (hip injury), Croat “Dr.” Ivo Karlovic served off No. 8 and newly-coachless Marin Cilic 6-4, 7-6(3), American Ryan Harrison edged compatriot and No. 9 seed John Isner 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 6-4, and American Rajeev “Rampras” Ram roasted No. 13 Lucas Pouille 6-4, 7-6(5).
Not lost on the day was an out-of-sorts world No. 1 Novak Djokovic still managing to post a win, beating the big-serving Gilles Muller 7-5, 7-6(3).
“[Muller] likes to play quick, and I think the warm day like today played a lot in his favor,” said Djokovic, who looked sluggish and rusty in his first appearance since Wimbledon. “I managed to start of the match well and get a set and a break up, and then I dropped my serve twice in the second set. Those are the only, let’s say, downsides to the match…the overall performance was very pleasing considering it was the first hard court match for a long time.”
Djokovic in the third round will have even less time to find his game when he meets the net-charging Worm.
Other results were No. 3 seed Kei Nishikori toping American Dennis Novikov 6-4, 7-5, No. 7 David Goffin advancing when Sam Querrey retired (back injury) trailing 6-4, 2-1, and No. 16 Jack Sock took out American countryman Donald Young 6-4, 6-3.
Thursday’s loaded schedule in Toronto features (1) Djokovic vs. The Worm, (2) Wawrinka vs. (16) Sock, (3) Nishokori vs. Rampras, (4) Raonic vs. (Q) Donaldson, (12) Tomic vs. Anderson, (7) Goffin vs. (10) Monfils, Karlovic vs. Dimitrov, and (5) Berdych vs. (Q) Harrison.
THURSDAY TORONTO SCHEDULE
CENTRE COURT start 11:00 am
R. Ram (USA) vs [3] K. Nishikori (JPN)
Not Before 1:00 pm
[16] J. Sock (USA) vs [2] S. Wawrinka (SUI)
[1] B. Bryan (USA) / M. Bryan (USA) vs M. Matkowski (POL) / M. Mirnyi (BLR)
Not Before 6:30 pm
[4] M. Raonic (CAN) vs [Q] J. Donaldson (USA)
[1] N. Djokovic (SRB) vs [Q] R. Stepanek (CZE)
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