{"id":30637,"date":"2025-07-29T00:47:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T00:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/30637\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T00:47:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T00:47:08","slug":"canadas-dan-martin-bows-out-in-straight-sets-in-opening-round-of-nbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/30637\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada\u2019s Dan Martin bows out in straight sets in opening round of NBO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Dan Martin of Canada returns the ball against Jaume Munar of Spain during first-round tennis action at the National Bank Open in Toronto on Monday.Nathan Denette\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Canadian qualifier Dan Martin\u2019s unexpected journey to the opening round of the National Bank Open ended Monday when he dropped a 6-3, 6-0 decision to Spain\u2019s Jaume Munar.<\/p>\n

Martin, ranked 560th in the world, was given a wild-card entry into the 32-man qualifier and upset Japan\u2019s Taro Daniel over the weekend to secure his first ATP Tour main draw appearance.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old from Laval, Que., was given the opening time-slot on centre court but struggled with his serve against the 51st-ranked Munar, who won the last 10 games of the 70-minute match.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the first time playing in front of such a big crowd,\u201d Martin said. \u201cHonestly, I\u2019m happy with how I played and look forward to seeing how this season goes for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a junior, Martin reached the final of the under-16 Canadian championship and took third place at the U18 national playdowns. He played college tennis at Dartmouth and the University of Miami and is now a regular at Challenger events throughout North America.<\/p>\n

Brazilian teen Joao Fonseca brings promise and a party atmosphere to his NBO debut<\/a><\/p>\n

Martin, who played earlier this month in Laval, Granby, Que., and Newport, R.I., was preparing for another stop on the lower-level tour when he got word of the wild-card invite at the Masters 1000 event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found out relatively late,\u201d he said. \u201cI was actually away playing, practising for another tournament. I drove 14 hours to Illinois, hoping to play a tournament. Then I found out about the wild card, so I had to drive another 10 hours back.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that was interesting. Honestly, when I found out, I was super excited and honestly, it\u2019s a life experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the weekend, Martin surprised the 156th-ranked Daniel in a rain-delayed three-set match. The Canadian was serving at deuce when play was postponed Saturday at 5-5 in the third set. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

With his upset win on Saturday, Martin reached the first round of the NBO and pocketed the biggest pay day of his career at US$23,760.Matthew Stockman\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

When the match resumed Sunday morning, Martin held serve and then broke Daniel for the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously a difficult night of sleep, just kind of visualizing the end of the match, the next couple points,\u201d Martin said. \u201cBut yeah, I really visualized a lot and it worked out well.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a hot, sunny afternoon at Sobeys Stadium, Martin saved his first break point against Munar for a 3-2 lead before things unravelled. The Canadian\u2019s serve was broken five straight times by the 51st-ranked Spaniard. <\/p>\n

Munar, who won 86 per cent of his first-serve points, will next face 14th-seeded Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina. Martin, meanwhile, won just 40 per cent of his first-serve points. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a new experience for me,\u201d Martin said. \u201cSo I\u2019m really happy to have experienced it and played in front of a home crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

By reaching the first round, he\u2019ll pocket US$23,760 for the biggest payday of his pro career.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is definitely big,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be helpful for at least a couple months, for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

With all 32 seeded players idle, Monday\u2019s schedule at the newly expanded tournament included several qualifiers, wild-card entries and lucky losers.<\/p>\n

Among the notable results, Australian qualifier Tristan Schoolkate beat rising Brazilian teenage star Joao Fonseca 7-6 (5), 6-4 and American Mackenzie McDonald topped Belgium\u2019s David Goffin 6-4, 6-4. <\/p>\n

In the evening session, Liam Draxl of Newmarket, Ont., was scheduled to play Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain and Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., was to meet Arthur Rinderknech of France.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Dan Martin of Canada returns the ball against Jaume Munar of Spain during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-30637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}