A total of 12 Canadian players took part in the first round of their home Masters tournament. The National Bank Open this year will see the ATP players play in Toronto and the WTA are set to compete in Montreal. As the first round finished in the Canadian cities, it is interesting to look at how the home players fared.
It was a mixed day for the Canadian fans as exactly half of the lot progressed into the next round. The WTA draw saw four out of the seven players progress to the next round and the ATP had two out of the five move ahead.
WTA results in Montreal
The main attraction of the Montreal draw was former Top 5 player Eugenie Bouchard, as she had announced this tournament to be her last. To the delight of the fans Bouchard carved out her first win in almost two years to live another day in her illustrious career. Apart from Bouchard, Rebecca Marino, Victoria Mboko, and Bianca Andreescu, who won impressively against Barbora Krejcikova, were the other Canadian women to win their first round. Unfortunately, Kayla Cross, Marina Stakusic and Carson Branstine couldn’t pass the first hurdle–however, Branstine did give a good fight to Maria Sakkari to turn a few eyeballs.
ATP results in Toronto
The ATP Toronto draw too had an emotional goodbye to Vasek Pospisil, who like Bouchard has announced that this will be his last event. Unlike Bouchard, Pospisil unfortunately could not cross the first hurdle and had to exit teary eyed. Nicolas Arseneault and Alexis Galarneau brought about impressive wins, with the latter beating Arthur Rinderknech in a tight contest. Liam Draxl and Dan Martin were the other two Canadians in the Round of 128; neither won their opening match.
Round of 64 will bring a few additional names to the draws as the seeded Canadians who received a “Bye” will join the First Round winners. The likes of Denis Shapovalov, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Gabriel Diallo will join the ATP draw and further intensify the event. The fans will hope for a local winner but it won’t be very easy with some really strong away players in each draw.
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