Montreal: Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman saved four match points to shock third-seeded Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-7 (7), 7-5 on Tuesday in the second round of the ATP Montreal Masters. World no. 36 Schwartzman seized the initiative against the seventh-ranked Austrian, who fell at the first hurdle after enjoying a first-round bye.
On the defensive early, Thiem held on to level the match at a set apiece on his fifth set point of the second-set tiebreaker. And the 23-year-old appeared to have gained control when he powered to a 5-2 lead in the third set.
But Schwartzman wouldn’t go away, saving two match points on his serve at 3-5, another in the next game and yet another as he served to take the set to 5-5. Schwartzman then broke to serve for the match. He fell behind 0-40, but won the last five points of the match for his first win over a top-10 player and a berth in the third round.
Donna Vekic reacts after defeating Eugenie Bouchard. (Photo: AFP)
Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov saved four match points en route to a three-set victory over Rogerio Dutra Silva in their first-round encounter. The 18-year-old trailed 4-6 in the second-set tiebreaker but saved all four match points he faced to force a third set.
Shapovalov broke Brazil’s Dutra Silva in the seventh game of the third and went on to close out a 4-6, 7-6 (8), 6-4 victory. South Korean 21-year-old Chung Hyeon withstood 16 aces to beat 2014 semi-finalist Feliciano Lopez 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (3).
He next faces ninth-seeded Belgian David Goffin, a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 winner over Japan’s Yuichi Sugita.
Coric sets Nadal date
Croatian 20-year-old Borna Coric breezed past Russian lucky loser Mikhail Youzhny 6-2, 6-4 to set up a second-round meeting with top-seeded Nadal.
Coric has won two of three prior encounters with the Spanish great, who won a 10th French Open title this year and can regain the world number one ranking with a run to the semi-finals this week.
In other first-round matches American Sam Querrey defeated Vincent Millot for the second time in as many weeks, peppering the French qualifier with 18 aces in a 4-6, 7-6 (4), 7-5 win.
American Jack Sock, seeded 15th, also advanced, downing France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert 7-6 (4), 6-3. Bouchard exits at home.
Toronto: Home support proved no help as Eugenie Bouchard’s struggles continued on Tuesday with a straight-sets loss to qualifier Donna Vekic at the WTA hardcourt tournament in Toronto. Croatia’s Vekic powered to a 6-3, 6-4 victory, to the disappointment of a partisan crowd whose vocal support couldn’t lift Bouchard.
The Canadian, who has just one match win since a second-round exit at the French Open, committed 32 unforced errors and seven double faults. In second-round action, former world number one Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, seeded sixth, powered through with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Fifth-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine also advanced with a 7-6 (4), 6-4 win over Russian Daria Kasatkina. In other first-round matches, 10th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland continued her dominance of big-serving American CoCo Vandeweghe with a 6-3, 6-2 win.
Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova swept past France’s Alize Cornet 6-0, 6-1 to book a second-round meeting with newly minted world number one and top seed Karolina Pliskova. Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia downed Croatian Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 7-5, 6-0 to line up a meeting with second-seeded defending champion Simona Halep, who won the Canadian title in Montreal last year.
