Eugenie Bouchard retires after three-set battle at National Bank Open
Montreal crowd gets first look at Swiatek since Wimbledon triumph
Eugenie Bouchard made her retirement from professional tennis official Wednesday night after losing a three-set battle at the National Bank Open.
The 31-year-old from Westmount, Que., bowed out to 17th seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 in a second-round match after announcing the hometown tournament would be her last.
Bouchard had extended her Montreal run with a first-round upset Monday night against Emiliana Arango — her first WTA Tour victory since 2023 — and showed flashes of the aggressive game that once powered her rise to world No. 5 in 2014.
The local favourite turned back the clock again Wednesday by rallying from down a set, but Bencic held on to win the match in two hours 16 minutes.
Montrealers packed the centre court stands at IGA Stadium, chanted "Let's Go Genie!" and grew louder throughout the warm summer night, standing up for several ovations.
After winning the second set, Bouchard went up a break early in the third, taking a back-and-forth third game when Bencic sent her shot into the net on the Canadian's fifth break-point opportunity.
Bencic, however, regrouped and broke back to tie at 3-3 in an error-filled game for Bouchard.
Trailing 5-4 and needing to hold serve, Bouchard fell in a 40-love hole and sent her shot wide while defending the second match point.
In a roller-coaster career, Bouchard peaked during a banner 2014 season, winning her only WTA title, reaching the Australian Open and French Open semis and becoming the first Canadian woman to play in a Grand Slam final in the open era at Wimbledon.
But Bouchard's rapid rise quickly came falling down after her 6-3, 6-0 loss to Petra Kvitova at the All England Club.
Her highly anticipated homecoming one month later ended abruptly with a 6-0, 2-6, 6-0 loss against American qualifier Shelby Rogers at the then-called Rogers Cup. And the following year, Bouchard crashed out of the French Open and Wimbledon first rounds as losing streaks piled up.
A run to the U.S. Open fourth round hinted at a return to form, until Bouchard suffered a concussion from slipping in the locker room — for which she later filed a lawsuit — forcing her to withdraw from the tournament.
In recent years, Bouchard has sporadically played on the pro tennis circuit, spending more time on the PPA Pickleball Tour, where she ranks 12th in singles.
She ramped up for her final event with the WTA 125 Hall of Fame Open in July — her first tournament since last year's NBO — and lost her opener in straight sets.
Bencic held a 3-0 head-to-head advantage over Bouchard, including a first-round win at the 2015 Rogers Cup in Toronto en route to winning the title.
The 28-year-old Bencic broke Bouchard early with a backhand winner in the third game. She then went up 5-2 with another break, with Bouchard spraying shots wide and into the net, before serving out the first set.
In the second set, Bouchard found a rhythm with her forehand ground strokes, breaking Bencic with a winner that just touched the back line to go up 5-3. She then held serve to force a third set.
Rising star Victoria Mboko is now the only Canadian remaining in the women's singles tournament. The 18-year-old from Toronto defeated 23rd seed Sofia Kenin on Tuesday and takes on Marie Bouzkova in the third round Thursday night.
Iga Swiatek comes out swinging
Iga Swiatek entered the National Bank Open with confidence after winning Wimbledon — and it showed in her opening match.
In her first outing since capturing the grass-court Grand Slam title, Swiatek cruised into the third round with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Guo Hanyu of China on the Montreal hard court Wednesday.
"I think I played a really solid match today," the second-seeded Swiatek said. "Playing the first match on hard court after a pretty long break from the surface is always tricky, so I'm happy that I just focused on myself, adjusted to the conditions and played well."
Swiatek, a former world No. 1, hit four aces and converted six break points on eight opportunities, winning the match in 72 minutes.
The 24-year-old from Poland defeated Amanda Anisimova 6-0, 6-0 in the Wimbledon final for her sixth career major. She also completed a surface Grand Slam after claiming four titles on clay at the French Open and winning on the U.S. Open hard court in 2022.
Swiatek said the Wimbledon title stands out because she wouldn't have predicted a tournament win for herself.
"Even in my best season, I wouldn't expect to win Wimbledon, so that's why it tastes so good," she said. "I never thought that it would be possible. That's why it was different than other Grand Slams.
"It got me a positive boost after a season of a lot of ups and downs."
In other notable women's singles results, two-time defending National Bank Open champion Jessica Pegula of the United States held off Marie Sakkari of Greece 7-5, 6-4.
Sixth-seeded American Madison Keys beat Germany's Laura Siegemund 6-2, 6-1 and former world No. 1 Naomi Osaka of Japan pulled off a 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3 comeback over Liudmila Samsonova of Russia.
Doubles action
A day after blaming unfavourable scheduling for her first-round exit in singles, Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and sister Bianca Jolie lost 6-4, 6-2 to top-seeded Italian duo Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in doubles.
Fernandez, who won the D.C. Open on Sunday, anticipated an evening match Tuesday to give her more time to recover. The Canadian lost in straight sets in the afternoon, however, to Australia's Maya Joint.
A day later, Fernandez had turned the page.
"Look, it's over. Now we just have to focus on the present and the future, the next tournaments," she said.
"I'm still a little disappointed that the tournament here in Montreal ended very, very early. It happened, it's in the past, now it's to look forward and continue to work, and prepare for Cincinnati."
In a surprise first-round exit, second-seeded Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski and teammate Erin Routliffe of New Zealand lost 7-6 (5), 3-6, 10-7 against Americans Sofia Kenin and Caroline Dolehide.
Kayla Cross of London, Ont. and Toronto's Victoria Mboko also fell 6-3, 7-6 (0) to Jiang Xinhu of China and Chan Hao-Ching of Taiwan.
This year's National Bank Open — a WTA 1000-level tournament — debuted a revamped 12-day, 96-player format, with the top 32 seeds receiving byes to the second round.
Diallo sweeps way into 3rd round in Toronto
Canada's Gabriel Diallo advanced to the third round of the National Bank Open on Wednesday with a 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory over Italy's Matteo Gigante.
The No. 27 seed from Montreal needed one hour 46 minutes to complete the rain-interrupted victory on Centre Court at Sobeys Stadium.
Diallo saved two set points at 2-5 before breaking back and eventually forcing a tiebreaker. Gigante took a 5-3 lead but dropped the last four points, including a double-fault on match ball.
"Tennis is sometimes pretty crazy with the momentum switches that you see throughout a match," Diallo said.
The six-foot-eight right-hander said he felt a little flat in the middle of the second set before turning things around. He got a spark by thinking about the approach he used in his college days at the University of Kentucky.
"Energy, intensity, things that you can control," he said. "And slowly my game came back."
Diallo won his first ATP Tour title last month at a 250-level stop in Den Bosch, the Netherlands.
He followed that up with a strong appearance at Wimbledon, pushing fourth-ranked Taylor Fritz to a fifth set in a second-round loss. Fritz could be his next opponent here if the American can get by Spain's Roberto Carballes Baena in the late match Wednesday night.
'Proud of the fight that I put up'
Canadian wild-card entry Alexis Galarneau was eliminated after dropping a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 decision to 13th-seeded Flavio Cobolli of Italy.
He earned his first main draw victory on the top tour with a 7-6 (2), 6-3 win over Arthur Rinderknech of France in the first round.
"I'm really proud [of] that," said Galarneau, who's ranked 193rd in the world. "Also proud of the fight that I put up today. I thought I played pretty well, and a lot of positives that I can take away from this week."
The afternoon session was delayed for about half an hour due to showers in the northwest Toronto area.
The two highest-seeded Canadians - No. 21 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal and No. 22 Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., - are both out after losing their opening matches at the Masters 1000 men's tournament.
Auger-Aliassime dropped a 6-4, 6-4 decision to Hungary's Fabian Marozsan on Wednesday night, a day after Shapovalov lost his second-round match to American Learner Tien.
In other second-round matches, fourth-seeded American Ben Shelton beat French qualifier Adrian Mannarino 6-2, 6-3 and sixth-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev defeated Hugo Gaston of France 6-2, 6-3.
Italy's Lorenzo Sonego, the No. 28 seed, topped China's Yunchaokete Bu 6-1, 6-4 and Australia's Aleksandar Vukic upset 31st-seeded Cameron Norrie of Britain 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-3.
Shapovalov was scheduled to team with Auger-Aliassime for a match Thursday against the American duo of Robert Galloway and Brandon Nakashima.
A replacement pairing will be named a few hours before the match, organizers said.
The Masters 1000 competition continues through Aug. 7.
