Montreal Open Archives

Montreal Open: Vondrousova halts Wozniacki comeback, Swiatek wins

Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova halted Caroline Wozniacki’s comeback in its tracks at the WTA Montreal Open on Wednesday, ousting the former world number one in straight sets.

Wozniacki had returned with a bang from a more than three-year layoff on Tuesday, winning 6-2, 6-2 against 115th-ranked Kimberly Birrell.

But the 33-year-old Danish star found Vondrousova a tougher proposition, with the ninth seed claiming a 6-2, 7-5 victory to set up a Montreal Open last-16 clash with Coco Gauff.

Vondrousova looked to be motoring towards a brisk victory after taking a 6-2, 3-0 lead over Wozniacki.

Marketa Vondrousova then had a point for a 4-0 lead but doubled faulted twice to let Wozniacki off the hook.

The veteran then rallied brilliantly to take a 4-3 lead and had a breakpoint in the eighth game for a 5-3 lead.

Marketa Vondrousova however held for 4-4 and then earned a break for a 6-5 lead before serving to love to seal victory.

Elsewhere on Wednesday, world number one Iga Swiatek entered the competition with an opening 7-6 (8/6), 6-2 win over Karolina Pliskova.

The victory left reigning US Open champion Swiatek needing a victory over Karolina Muchova on Thursday to ensure she will hold on to the number one ranking for a 72nd week.

Her clash with the Czech Republic’s Muchova on Thursday is a rematch of the duo’s three-set battle in the French Open final earlier this year, won by Iga Swiatek.

“It’s nice to have some challenges and overcome them,” Swiatek after Wednesday’s win. “It wasn’t an easy first round, but I’m happy that I stayed solid, and I could close it in the first set.”

Iga Swiatek, who entered the tournament fresh from a victory in Warsaw last month, is now relishing another duel with Muchova.

“We have to be ready for the next match and kind of expect that anything can happen because tennis can be pretty unpredictable,” Swiatek said.

“You know, one player can have a bad day. At the same time, the other one can play the best tennis of their life.”

In other Montreal Open games on Wednesday, 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina finally closed out victory over Jennifer Brady in a match that had started on Tuesday before being halted.

Rybakina, seeded three, edged past the returning Brady 6-7(3/7), 7-6(7/5), 6-3 and will now face unseeded Sloane Stephens of the United States in the last 16.

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Hurkacz ends Kyrgios streak in Montreal, sets semi-final clash with Ruud

MONTREAL: Hubert Hurkacz overcame 53 winners from Nick Kyrgios to halt the Australian’s nine-match win streak with a three-set quarter-final victory on Friday at the ATP Montreal Masters.

The Polish eighth seed managed 43 winners of his own in a rapid-fire 7-6(7/4), 6-7(5/7), 6-1 triumph that put him into his fourth semi-final at the Masters level.

Hurkacz will next face Norway’s fourth-seeded Casper Ruud, who crushed home hope Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-1, 6-2, in 74 minutes.

Ruud will play his third Masters semi-final this season on Saturday, having defeated Hurkacz in their previous meeting in May at Roland Garros.

At the bottom of the draw, Dan Evans completed a comeback to defeat American Tommy Paul 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, needing two match points to overcome Paul in two and a quarter hours.

But the chance of an all-British semi-final at this elite level fell away as Jack Draper lost 7-6 (7/4), 6-1 to Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta after saving a pair of match points.

The 39th-ranked Evans, who managed only 15 winners, was decisively out-hit by Paul with 40.

Not surprisingly he said reaching his second career semi-final in the Masters tournament was a hard slog.

“I had to try and hang in, get a few scraps off of him,” he said. “If he made errors, take advantage, he was too good in the first set.

“You start to wonder if you can get into the match, so when I got the chance I took it to him. I was fired up – we had a good battle.”

For Hurkacz, it was the second win in as many matches against Kyrgios, the first played on grass in June at Halle, Germany.

Kyrgios, known for quick play, had several service games go by in less than one minute, with the Wimbledon finalist barely pausing between the end of one point and the start of the next.

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Kyrgios beats No. 1 Medvedev at Montreal, Alcaraz and Tsitsipas ousted

MONTREAL: Nick Kyrgios rallied to topple world number one Daniil Medvedev at the ATP Montreal Masters on Wednesday as the top three seeds tumbled in the second round.

Australia’s Wimbledon finalist beat Medvedev 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, 6-2 to produce his second career upset of a reigning number one after ambushing Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2014.

Unseeded American Tommy Paul also came from a set down to send second-seeded Carlos Alcaraz of Spain packing 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (9/7), 6-3 while unseeded Briton Jack Draper beat third-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece 7-5, 7-6 (7/4).

Kyrgios started the landslide. The mercurial Aussie produced his usual on-court antics, complaining about a high bounce, hitting a ball into the stands to draw a warning and bickering with his player box in moments of tension.

But after gathering his formidable resources, the 27-year-old ranked 37th finished off Medvedev in exactly two hours.

“I don’t go in looking at the rankings, just the guy in front of me,” Kyrgios said. “I had a clean objective today — play a lot of serve and volley and execute better.

“”Hopefully I can keep this rolling and keep on winning.”

Both players were coming off weekend title wins, Kyrgios at the Washington 500 on Sunday and Medvedev at Los Cabos, Mexico, on Saturday.

Kyrgios has won 14 of his last 15 matches to improve to 29-7 for 2022. Medvedev lost for the 11th time in 2022, but by reaching the final at Los Cabos — where he lifted his first trophy of the season — he is assured of taking the number one ranking into his US Open title defense later this month.

He was barred from Wimbledon as the tournament excluded Russian and Belarussian players over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Alcaraz, who like Medvedev enjoyed a first-round bye, fared no better in his opening match, with the teenager admitting pressure got to him.

Alcaraz came into the event with two prestige Masters 1000 titles from Miami and Madrid and holding a 42-7 record this season.

“It was the first time that I couldn’t handle the pressure,” Alcaraz said. “I felt the pressure (of being) the number two seed and number four in the world.

“It was the first time that I felt this pressure.”

The youngster added: “I had chances, I was a break up in the second set, had chances to win the match.

“He played really good in the tough moments. He played great, and I couldn’t show my best.”

The 34th-ranked Paul claimed victory on a volley winner after holding off the Spaniard’s charge from 5-2 down in the third set.

“It was nice to finish this match at the net,” said Paul, who fired 36 winners to Alcaraz’s 33. “I did a lot of things well today. “I played a good level of tennis, comfortable tennis.”

Tsitsipas completed the hat-trick of losses for the tournament elite.

Draper, 20, earned his first career win over a top-10 opponent as he reached the third round in just over two hours with five breaks of the Tsitsipas serve.

Fourth seed Casper Ruud made it safely through, backing up his defeat earlier this season of Alex Molcan with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 victory over the Slovakian.

The Norwegian with three trophies so far in 2022 had to work to win the opening set after dropping serve as he tried to close it out leading 5-4.

However, he sealed his third-round place in straight sets for his 36th win of the season.

Elsewhere, Italian Jannik Sinner needed three sets to get past Adrian Mannarino 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 while Alex de Minaur lined up an all-Aussie Thursday match against Kyrgios by defeating Grigor Dimitrov 7-6 (7/4), 7-5.

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