Agencies
Toronto, July 27: Second seed Stan Wawrinka headlined the seeded players to advance on the second day of action in Rogers Cup Main Draw tournament at Aviva Centre here Tuesday.
The 31-year-old Swiss battled Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny in a two-hour match that went to tie-break in both sets. The Swiss won 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (8-6) to advance to the third round.
In the only other second round match Tuesday, No. 5 seed Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic overcame a first set loss to beat Borna Coric of Croatia in three sets. 6-7 (5-7), 6-1, 6-3.
Tuesday saw three seeded French players in first play. No. 10 seed Gael Monfils and No. 13 seed Lucas Pouille were victorious while No. 14 seed Benoit Paire was bounced in straight sets by 37-year-old Czech Radek Stepanek, who reached the main draw as a qualifier.
Monfils defeated Joao Sousa 6-3, 6-3 and will now meet local player Vasek Pospisil who won the first set tie-break against Jeremy Chardy before the Frenchman retired with a foot injury.
In women’s segment fifth seed Simona Halep put on an impressive display dismantling Australian Daria Gavrilova 6-2, 6-3.
Earlier, local favourite Canadian Eugenie Bouchard defeated ninth seed Lucie Safarova 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3). Bouchard came back from a 3-1 deficit in the tie-breaker with six straight points, securing victory on Safarova’s 10th double-fault of the match.
It did not go so well for Aleksandra Wozniak, another local favourite, who lost 4-6, 6-7 (4-7) to Sara Errani of Italy. Errani’s next opponent is 14th-seeded Karolina Pliskova, who got past Kateryna Bondarenko 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.
