Australian qualifier Tristan Schoolkate on Monday dispatched rising Brazilian talent Joao Fonseca 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 at the ATP Toronto Masters, ensuring a breakthrough into the world top 100.
The 24-year-old from Perth moved to 98th in the ongoing live rankings as he claimed his biggest career victory by knocking out the ATP NextGen champion from November last year.
Schoolkate, son of a tennis coach, won his first match over a top-50 opponent on his sixth attempt as he ousted the world No. 49 teenager from Brazil. The qualifier played a quarter-final this month in Los Cabos and won through qualifying for his spot in the Masters main draw.
Photo: AP
“I’m very happy with the result,” Schoolkate said. “I played a good match and made it tricky throughout. He’s so young [18], but already an established player. I’m looking forward to my next match.”
That is to be against last year’s semi-finalist Matteo Arnaldi of Italy.
Schoolkate advanced with 10 aces among his 23 winners. He caught Fonseca in a first-set tiebreaker and broke for a 2-1 lead in the second set on his way to victory in windy conditions.
“The conditions suit the way I play,” he said. “I like to serve big and get forward to make things uncomfortable for the opponent.”
The Australian said that he had given some thought to his potential top-100 breakthrough, but is not stressing over any self-imposed deadlines.
“My goal now is to be in the top 100, but I’ll just keep playing week in, week out, pushing hard and it will come,” he said.
With seeds all receiving byes at the pre-US Open tournament, the supporting cast again dominated the program.
Mackenzie McDonald of the US beat Belgian veteran David Goffin 6-4, 6-4, while Spain’s Jaume Munar put out Canadian wild-card Dan Martin with the loss of just three games.
“I’ve been improving my serve a lot,” Munar said. “I’m putting more pressure on the baseline and my mindset is clear. I still need to be more aggressive to compete against the best ones, I’m going [to do] that more and more, but I have a long way to go.”
Munar next faces Czech Jiri Lehecka.
France’s Hugo Gaston advanced when Italian opponent Mattia Bellucci quit injured, handing over a 3-6, 6-4, 2-0 win.
Christopher O’Connell of Australia joined Schoolkate as a winner with his 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Taiwan’s Tseng Hsin-chun.
World No. 3 Alexander Zverev is the top seed of the expanded 12-day event, which is to play its final on Thursday next week instead of the more traditional Sunday.
World No. 1 Jannik Sinner and world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz along with Novak Djokovic all withdrew with various injuries and fatigue issues prior to the tournament, which began only two weeks after the Wimbledon final.
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
‘CATASTROPHE’: Despite losing several key forwards in the summer transfer window, Bayern were up 3-0 in the first half before Harry Kane scored a hat-trick in the second Harry Kane hit a hat-trick, Michael Olise a double and newcomer Luis Diaz also scored as Bayern Munich made a “statement” against RB Leipzig 6-0 at home in the Bundesliga season opener on Friday. Bayern’s big-money arrivals, all brought in from the Premier League across the past three seasons, were dominant as the Bavarians begun their title defense in style. Olise scored twice in the first half, either side of a Diaz strike. Not to be outdone, Kane scored three goals in the second half — with two assists coming from Diaz, to bring Bayern’s total to 6-0. Kane told the Bundesliga
Marc Marquez continued his winning streak as he cruised to victory in the Hungarian GP sprint by two seconds on Saturday night to pad his championship lead. It was a seventh straight Sprint victory for the Spaniard, who has also won the last six longer Sunday grand prix races on his factory Ducati. Fabio Di Giannantonio, an Italian with the VR46 Ducati satellite team was a distant second at Balaton Park, followed by his team-mate and compatriot Franco Morbidelli third. Marquez, a six-time world champion, started the race from pole position. “I felt someone really close on the first corner, from there I
Russian Diana Shnaider continued her impressive winning streak in tour-level finals at the Monterrey Open on Saturday, beating compatriot Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the WTA 500 event’s final. Shnaider had little trouble in the opening set but struggled in a topsy-turvy second, as Alexandrova clinched the set’s fifth and decisive break at 5-4 to force a decider. Third-seed Shnaider carved out an advantage early on in the third set when she broke Alexandrova in the first game and held serve to go 2-0 up, an advantage she would not relinquish. World No. 12 Shnaider is now unbeaten in her last five