Pospisil advances to second round

TORONTO (CP) — Another Canadian is through to the second round of the Rogers Cup and that suits Vasek Pospisil just fine.

The Vancouver product defeated Jeremy Chardy in first-round action on Tuesday night after the Frenchman retired with a right foot injury.

With five Canadians advancing, it ties the most that have ever moved past the first round at the men’s tournament. The last time it happened was 2013.

“It’s good to have new faces for sure,” Pospisil said. “I’m 26 already. I feel like I have been a new face but maybe not so much anymore. But it’s cool to see and I’ll try to catch (watch) the next one that Denis (Shapovalov) and the other Canadians play.”

Chardy started to favour his foot after Pospisil went up 30-0 in the first game of the second set. Chardy called for the trainer and waited several minutes before deciding that he couldn’t go on.

Pospisil won the first set 7-6 (3). He’ll face Gael Monfils in the second round. Monfils is coming off a victory at last week’s Washington Open and is 2-0 in his career against the Canadian.

Fourth seed Milos Raonic will open his tournament against Taiwan’s Yen-Hsun Lu, Steven Diez faces 12th seed Bernard Tomic, Peter Polansky goes up against Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, and the teenage Shapovalov plays Bulgaria’s Girgor Dimitrov all on Wednesday.

Raonic, who had a bye in the first round of the Rogers Cup, is 2-0 against the 32-year-old Lu, with his last victory coming in 2014 in Monte Carlo. Lu said he’s noticed a lot of improvement in Raonic’s game recently.