Hometown favourite Bouchard falls in Montreal
montreal — The vocal support of the home crowd was not enough to carry Canadian Eugenie Bouchard into the second round of the Rogers Cup in Montreal on Tuesday as she fell 6-2,6B4 to Belgian Elise Mertens.
Mertens, the 14th seed, won five break points to dispatch Bouchard, who has fallen to 129th in the world after reaching a career-high of fifth in 2014 — the year she .. reached the Wimbledon final.
Home hopes now rest on 21-year-old Francoise Abanda, who defeated qualifier Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium 6-3, 6-2.
British number one Johanna Konta fired eight aces en route to a 6-7(6) 6-1 6-2 upset win over 11thseeded Latvian Jelena Ostapenko.
Konta, who handed Serena Williams the worst loss of her career at the Silicon Valley Classic last month, will face former world number one Victoria Azarenka in the second round on Wednesday.
Azarenka was in complete control as she strolled to a 6-0, 6-1 win over Kristina Mladenovic of France in a match that lasted less than an hour.
Daria Kasatkina, seeded 12th, beat rising Greek talent Maria Sakkari 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 to set up her first career meeting against fellow Russian Maria Sharapova in the second round on Wednesday.
Other players to advance from the first round on Tuesday included Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro and
Russian France Sixth Halep who and will seed Anastasia on face Wednesday. eighth-seeded Caroline top-seeded Pavlyuchenkova, Garcia Czech Simona of Petra round Kvitova with advanced wins over to the Slovak third Magdalena Rybarikova and Estonian Anett Kontaveit.
Elsewhere, Maria Sharapova made quick work of Bulgarian qualifier Sesil Karatantcheva, easily winning 6-1, 6-2 in a renewal of their former teenage rivalry.
“No matter what tournament or who you’re playing against, you have to figure things out as you go. I think I did a good job of that today,” Sharapova said.
Sharapova, a finalist in 2009, performed solidly, defeating Karatantcheva for the fifth time in their five career meetings.
“I was aggressive, I served well throughout the match,” Sharapova said. “I think I did everything a little bit better, especially towards the end of the match.” —