RIGHT BACK AT IT
Fresh off a victory in D.C., Gael Monfils cruises to take opener at Rogers Cup,
“I’m happy with the performance going forward after this long period of time which I didn’t play such a high level of tennis.” CANADA’S ALEKSANDRA WOZNIAK
MONTREAL— Eugenie Bouchard thrilled her hometown crowd with a 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (3) victory over Lucie Safarova in the opening round of the $2.4 million women’s Rogers Cup on Tuesday.
Bouchard fell behind 3-1 in the tiebreaker but then put up six straight points, taking the win on Safarova’s double fault on match point in a nearly sold out Uniprix Stadium.
The Westmount, Que., native has dropped to 41st in WTA rankings since her last Rogers Cup in Montreal in 2014, when she was ranked in the top 10 but ended up losing to a qualifier in the first round.
The tournament lost one of its stars when the third seed, French Open champion Garbine Muguruza, withdrew with an illness, giving Naomi Broady a walkover win. Top seed Serena Williams withdrew on Sunday.
Bouchard dominated the opening set, only to see the 28th-ranked Safarova find her service range and turn the tables in the second.
They held serve through the third, although Bouchard let three match points slip away while leading 6-5, 40-0, giving Safarova momentum going into the tiebreaker.
Bouchard will next face the winner of a match between Dominika Cibulkova and Mariana Duque-Marino.
It did not go so well for Aleksandra Wozniak of Blainville, Que., who lost 6-4, 7-6 (4) to Italy’s Sara Errani.
Errani, ranked 25th in the world, posted four service breaks in the first set of the centre court battle of 29year-old baseliners. Errani, coming off a quarter-final on clay in Sweden last week, led 4-2 in the second when Wozniak had her best moments battling back to force a tiebreaker.
Wozniak, ranked 21st in 2009, has slipped to 465th after a series of injuries, including shoulder surgery. She lost in first round for a second week in a row, having fallen to Jessica Pegula last week in Washington.
“I think it was a close match, playing the No. 25 in the world,” said Wozniak. “I thought I played well. “I had some opportunities to turn it around. But I’m happy with the per- formance going forward after this long period of time which I didn’t play such a high level of tennis.”
Errani’s next opponent is 14th seed Karolina Pliskova, who got past Kateryna Bondarenko 3-6, 6-2, 7-5.
A battle of the Madisons looms as 10th-seeded Madison Keys breezed by Elena Visnina 6-4, 6-0 and will face fellow American Madison Brengle in the second round. Keys has won all three previous matches between them.
Lucky loser Christina McHale of the U.S. posted a 6-4, 3-0 win over qualifier Shuai Zhang, who retired in the second set, and will next face 16th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who defeated Yulia Putintseva 6-4, 1-6, 7-5. Andrea Petkovic of Germany downed Alize Cornet of France 7-6 (1), 6-3 to advance to a second-round meeting with 12th seeded Petra Kvitova.
Daria Kasatkina beat Misaki Doi 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 to set up a meeting with 13th-seeded Samantha Stosur.