Home favorite Bouchard tumbles
Caroline Garcia of France hits a return to Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova during their Rogers Cup second-round match at IGA Stadium in Montreal, Canada, on Tuesday. The sixth seed rallied to a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory.
The vocal support of the home crowd was not enough to carry Canadian Eugenie Bouchard into the second round of the Rogers Cup in Montreal on Tuesday as she fell 2-6, 4-6 to Belgian Elise Mertens.
Mertens, the 14th seed, won five break points to dispatch Bouchard, who has fallen to 129th in the world after reaching a career-high of fifth in 2014 — the year she reached the Wimbledon final.
Home hopes now rest on 21-year-old Francoise Abanda, who defeated another Belgian Kirsten Flipkens 6-3, 6-2.
British No. 1 Johanna Konta fired eight aces en route to a 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-2 upset of 11th-seeded Latvian Jelena Ostapenko.
Konta, who handed Serena Williams the worst loss of her career at the Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, California, last month, will face former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka in the second round.
Azarenka was in complete control as she strolled to a 6-0, 6-1 win over Kristina Mladenovic of France in a match that lasted less than an hour.
Daria Kasatkina, seeded 12th, beat rising Greek talent Maria Sakkari 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 to set up her first career meeting against fellow Russian Maria Sharapova in the second round.
Sixth seed Caroline Garcia of France and eighth-seeded Czech Petra Kvitova advanced to the third round with wins over Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova and Estonian Anett Kontaveit, respectively.
In Toronto, Novak Djokovic did not let a late switch in opponent throw him off his stride in his quest for a fifth Rogers Cup title as he subdued Bosnian lucky loser Mirza Basic 6-3, 7-6 (3) in first-round action on Tuesday.
Djokovic, the ninth seed and world No. 10, was originally scheduled to play Australian Open semifinalist Chung Hyeon but the 22-year-old South Korean withdrew with a back injury about an hour before the match was due to start.
The Serb, competing in singles for the first time since his Wimbledon triumph last month, was never in real danger during the clash, but he still needed some time to figure out Basic before wrapping up the match in 90 minutes.
“I’ve never played Basic. I’ve known him, I’ve practiced with him, but I’ve never played an official match so definitely not easy to find a rhythm from the beginning of the match,” said Djokovic.
In other first-round action, Swiss wildcard Stan Wawrinka upset 16th-seeded Australian Nick Kyrgios 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 while Dutchman Robin Haase beat Japan’s Kei Nishikori 7-5, 6-1.
