Canadians ousted in Valencia

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

VALENCIA, Spain -- It was a tough day for Canadians at the Valencia Open.

Croatia's Marin Cilic defeated Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., 6-4, 6-4 in the first round Wednesday while defending champion David Ferrer of Spain ousted qualifier Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C., 6-3, 6-3 in the second round.

Break points were hard to come by as Cilic saved his serve twice and broke Raonic a pair of times to win it. The Croatian is ranked 20th in the world compared to No. 27 for Raonic.

The top-seeded Ferrer, ranked fifth in the world, was hardly troubled for the second straight day as he saved five of six break chances and converted four himself, including the lone break of the second set to advance at the City of Arts and Sciences.

Pospisil is ranked No. 133 in the world.

Meanwhile, third-seeded Gaels Monfils hit 10 aces to power his way to a 6-2, 7-6 (5) win over Pablo Andujar of Spain, while sixth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro also sent down 10 aces to overwhelm Dmitry Tursunov of Russia 6-4, 6-1 to reach the second round.

American player Alex Bogomolov Jr. rallied to knock eighth-seeded Spanish player Feliciano Lopez out of the tournament with a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2) win.

Del Potro and Monfils maintained their pursuits of a place at the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals in London with the victories, especially with ninth-ranked Nicolas Almagro having lost his first-round match a day earlier.

"That's not in my thinking right now. Mathematically I'm the one who's furthest away from those who have a chance and I'm aware of that," said the 15th-ranked Del Potro, who added he would not go to London as an alternate either.

"My goal is to keep improving and reach my ultimate level," said Del Potro, who dropped only 13 points on serve in his match.