Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman on Tuesday saved four match points to shock third-seeded Dominic Thiem 6-4, 6-7 (7/9), 7-5 in the second round of the Rogers Cup.
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.
Photo: AFP
The 23-year-old appeared to have gained control when he powered to a 5-2 lead in the third set.
However, Schwartzman would not 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 final five points of the match for his first win over a top-10 player and a berth in the third round.
Schwartzman’s was not the only great escape of the day.
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.
“I don’t remember all of them. Honestly, it’s a little bit of a blur,” Shapovalov said. “I remember one of them, he passed me. I hit a pretty tough volley. It was a pretty long point there. On one of them, I remember I was pretty far back. I went for a backhand down the line, which was pretty good. I wasn’t holding back.”
“I just told myself, he’s got to win it from me, I’m not going to give it to him. I think I did a good job to stay tough out there,” he added.
Shapovalov broke Brazil’s Dutra Silva in the seventh game of the third and went on to close out a 4-6, 7-6 (10/8), 6-4 victory.
With old-guard stars Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer taking a day off — 19-time Grand Slam champion Federer to celebrate his 36th birthday — Shapovalov was one of a wealth of young talents to shine on Tuesday.
South Korean 21-year-old Chung Hyeon withstood 16 aces to beat 2014 semi-finalist Feliciano Lopez 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7/3).
After the third set went to the tiebreaker without a break of serve, Chung built a 4-2 advantage and went on to secure the victory in 2 hours, 16 minutes.
He next faces ninth-seeded Belgian David Goffin, a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 winner over Japan’s Yuichi Sugita.
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 No. 1 ranking with a run to the semi-finals this week.
American Ernesto Escobedo, 21 years old and ranked 85th in the world, got his chance as a lucky loser when 10th-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych withdrew with a rib injury.
Escobedo stepped in and defeated Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili 7-6 (7/4), 6-4.
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 (7/4), 7-5 win. Querrey beat Millot in the quarter-finals at Los Cabos en route to his 10th ATP title.
American Jack Sock, seeded 15th in Montreal, also advanced after defeating France’s Pierre-Hugues Herbert 7-6 (7/4), 6-3.
In women’s singles, home support proved no help as Eugenie Bouchard’s struggles continued with a straight-sets loss to qualifier Donna Vekic in Toronto.
Croatia’s Vekic powered to a 6-3, 6-4 victory, to the disappointment of a partisan crowd whose vocal support could not 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.
She was broken six times by the 21-year-old Vekic, who is in the main draw of this US Open tuneup for the first time.
Bouchard, touted as a rising star when she reached the 2014 Wimbledon final on the heels of semi-final appearances at the Australian and French Opens, was once ranked as high as fifth in the world.
She is now 70th and received a wild-card entry into the main draw, but her Toronto campaign lasted just 94 minutes.
“I’m obviously a bit low in confidence right now,” Bouchard said. “So it’s tough to get through tough matches when you’re in a moment like that.”
In second-round action, former world No. 1 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 (7/4), 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.
Radwanska, winner of the Canadian crown in 2014 when the tournament was held in Montreal, has won five straight hard-court meetings against Vandeweghe — who managed to turn the tables in a grass-court clash at Birmingham last year.
It was a disappointing early exit for Vandeweghe, who reached the final at Stanford last week to move into the top 20 in the world rankings.
Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova swept past France’s Alize Cornet 6-0, 6-1 to book a second-round meeting with newly minted world No. 1 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.
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