Raonic advances in singles
TORONTO Denis Shapovalov and Felix Auger-Aliassime walked out to a loud applause from a jampacked grand stand at the Rogers Cup on Monday night.
They took a few warm-up shots, smiled at each other, then calmly faced off against two of the top players in the game.
While the Canadian teenagers came up short, falling 6-3, 6-2 in the first-round doubles match against 2018 Wimbledon champ Novak Djokovic and runner-up Kevin Anderson, they weren’t jostled by the pedigree of their opponents.
“Our game was there, we didn’t feel intimidated at all,” said the 19-year-old Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont.
“Just to have a chance to play with these guys is already good,” added Auger-Aliassime, a Montreal native who won’t turn 18 until later this week.
Djokovic and Anderson defeated the teens handedly in a match that was delayed when rain interrupted the afternoon schedule for nearly three hours. Minutes after the teenagers’ loss, Canada’s Milos Raonic topped David Goffin of Belgium 6-3, 6-4 on centre court to advance to the second round of the singles draw.
Rainfall moved into the area of the York University campus just before 3 p.m. ET, interrupting three matches and causing a location change from centre court to the grand stand for Shapovalov and Auger-Aliassime.
Doubles partners on the junior circuit years ago and wild-card entries for this week’s tournament, the two started the match strong before Djokovic and Anderson took control.
They broke Anderson’s serve for a 2-0 lead, but the Wimbledon finalists team - nicknamed “Djokerson” thanks to a Twitter poll conducted by Djokovic earlier in the day - broke back to tie the match 2-2, and again to go up 5-3. Both breaks were on Auger-Aliassime serves.
Anderson and Djokovic won five straight games, going up two breaks, to win the second set.
“Yeah, I struggled a little bit with my percentage at the start of the first set,” Auger-Aliassime said. “And I’m playing against the greatest returner in the game so obviously he’s going to put some returns in.
“I think maybe we weren’t as efficient at the net to close out the points but that’s it.”
Raonic, ranked No. 30, also got off to a hot start in his match, breaking Goffin for a 4-1 lead in the first set.
The former World No. 3, who’s battled numerous injuries over the past two seasons - including a quad tear at Wimbledon last month - used his powerful serve to his advantage. He fired 13 aces to Goffin’s two and won 100 per cent of his firstservice points.
“I think I can still serve much better, I don’t think I served particularly well,” Raonic said. “So I’ll take the time to work on some things tomorrow but overall it was a good performance. Mentally I was in the right state of mind the whole way through and I was very disciplined with myself.”