Day 2 of the Rogers Cup featured one of the top players in the world upset in the second round and plenty of Canadian content.
Here’s five things we learned from the action in both Toronto and Montreal.
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Kenin continues to topple top 10 opponents
Sofia Kenin is having a 2019 to remember and it continued Tuesday with a second-round win over world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty from Australia.
It was the 20-year-old American’s fourth win over a top-10 player in her career and second to date this year. Performing it over a player of Barty’s class makes it all the more impressive.
Wow, @SofiaKenin #RC19 pic.twitter.com/kKDbMOxDmU
— WTA (@WTA) August 6, 2019
After losing her first three career matches against Barty, Kenin was finally able to conquer that hurdle.
Kenin already has wins this year at Hobart and Mallorca along with a loss in the final at Acapulco. Could she add a third career win this week in Toronto?
Pospisil shows he can still compete with top talent
Vasek Pospisil hadn’t played on the ATP Tour all season until last month.
A back injury and subsequent surgery kept him out of the circuit and his return to action came at Wimbledon where he faced fellow Canadian Felix Auger-Alliasime.
Pospisil, 29, would again face Auger-Alliasime in the first round of the Rogers Cup but, again, would fall 6-2, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (3).
The Vernon, B.C., native has shown over the course of the last month that he’s not done yet with his singles game.
Oddly enough, both Pospisil and Auger-Alliasime, an 18-year-old phenom from Montreal, are doubles partners and lost in the first round of the Rogers Cup to France’s Jeremy Chardy and Fabrice Martin.
Pospisil is ranked No. 205 in the ATP rankings and has shown flashes of his solid singles play in the past. Anyone remember his 2017 Indian Wells win over Andy Murray?
If Pospisil’s two matches against Auger-Aliassime show us anything, it’s that his singles days aren’t over just yet.
Young Canadian teen Fernandez motivated by Halep
Leylah Annie Fernandez is an up and coming talent on the women’s tennis scene and a doubles pairing with No. 4 ranked Simona Halep may only help that development.
Fernandez is a 16-year-old from Laval, Que., and was paired with Halep for a doubles match at the Rogers Cup. The duo may have lost to Nicole Melichar and Kveta Peschke, but Fernandez said playing with Halep was a big boost.
“I think just her presence has just motivated me a lot,” Fernandez said.
The duo were playing together for the first time and a day after Fernandez lost her main draw singles debut.
Fernandez won the French Open girls title earlier this year, a championship which Halep captured 10 years prior.
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Kyrgios needs a break…and a towel
One of the most polarizing figures on the men’s tour is heading home early from the Rogers Cup again and is probably still complaining somewhere about a towel.
Nick Kyrgios was beat by Britain’s Kyle Edmund 6-3, 6-4, but spent parts of the rain delayed match arguing with the referee.
“Towels were fine,” he said post-match.
It was the third time in four years that Kyrgios is heading home after the first round at this tournament. The last time he advanced further was in 2017, when he lost to eventual champion Alexander Zverev in the third round.
To Kyrgios’s credit, he was coming off a taxing week where he beat Daniil Medvedev to win the Citi Open.
Break points cost Bouchard
Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard was looking in control during her first round match against compatriot Bianca Andreescu, especially after taking the first set 6-4.
But a rocky second set for the Westmount, Que., native put a big dent in her chances to end an eight-match losing streak.
Bouchard, a wild-card entry at the event, was broken four-straight times — three in the second, one in the third — before stopping the bleeding in the third game of the third set. Despite a tight third set, Andreescu proved to be too much.
Andreescu, a 19-year-old from Thornhill, Ont., was playing in her first tournament since Roland Garros after dealing with a shoulder injury.
Bouchard’s last win was in February.
