Rogers Cup: Pospisil upset by fellow Canadian Polansky
Milos Raonic match pushed back until Wednesday because of minor injury
Vancouver's Vasek Pospisil says he "completely vanished into thin air" after jumping out to a big lead.
Fellow Canadian Peter Polansky, ranked No. 116 in the world, upset 75th-ranked Pospisil in straight sets 7-5, 6-2 in the opening round at the Rogers Cup on Monday.
Pospisil was leading 5-2 in the first set and making quick work of his countryman when the match took a turn.
"I don't know what happened," said Pospisil. "It's one of those matches to forget, to be honest. I can't say it wasn't my day because I started well. Then things just kind of shifted strangely."
Pospisil began missing shots that he made look easy to begin the match.
"I don't know how many times that's happened in my career, where it was like a bipolar, weird thing. Two completely different players for the first half of the match, then the second half. It was very strange."
Down 5-2, Polansky won the next five games, breaking Pospisil twice in the process, to take the first set. It was more of the same in the second set, with the 29-year-old Polansky needing just 32 minutes to finish off the match.
"I really felt if I just made him play a few extra balls, and I made him play a little bit more, I felt like the match would turn around, maybe that not extreme," said Polansky. "I still thought I was going to lose the first set, but I was hoping to take the second set, push him into a third."
It's Polansky's second victory on the ATP world tour this year.
The Toronto native now faces Roger Federer, one of the tournament favourites, in the second round on Wednesday.
The two met once before at the Rogers Cup in Toronto in 2014. Federer easily won that match 6-2, 6-0.
"I remember it went really, really quick," said Polansky. "I wish I was out there longer last time. I looked at some of the highlights after the match, and there were a lot of good points. I just lost every single one of them."
Another Toronto player, Brayden Schnur, lost his opening-round match 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-1 against France's Richard Gasquet.
The 197th-ranked Schnur held his own against Gasquet, ranked No. 29, for much of the three-hour match.
"I'm really happy that I went for it," said Schnur. "I went on the court and gave everything I had. I played a pretty complete match. The hard work is paying off.
"One of the best matches I've ever played, for sure."
Monfils avoids upset
Meanwhile on centre court, Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro (ranked No. 31) successfully upset 19th-ranked John Isner in straight sets 7-5, 7-5.
Earlier in the day, 22nd-ranked Gael Monfils avoided a first-round upset as he rallied from a set down to beat 35th-ranked Steve Johnson 2-6, 7-6(1), 6-1.
Monfils struggled in the first set but got better as the match went on.
"It took me a long time in the match to start feeling better and more fluid," said Monfils, who will face Japan's Kei Nishikori in the second round. "I was not confident. I had trouble moving."
Also in the afternoon session, David Ferrer of Spain, ranked No. 33, defeated 43rd-ranked Kyle Edmund of Britain 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-3 in a marathon match that lasted 2 1/2 hours.
In the first match of the day, Nick Kyrgios was dominant in a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Viktor Troicki. The 24th-ranked Kyrgios won the match in 51 minutes.
Milos Raonic, a product of Thornhill, Ont., received a first-round bye and plays his opening match on Wednesday afternoon.
Raonic was initially scheduled to play on Tuesday night, but Tennis Canada says the Canadian asked for an extra day off to recover from a minor injury sustained during practice.
WOMEN: Venus Williams advances
Ninth seed Venus Williams advanced to the second round, outlasting a rain delay to beat Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 at Aviva Centre.
Rain forced a 90-minute delay with Williams up 2-1 in the third set. The 37-year-old American broke Begu to immediately go up 3-1 but Begu broke back in the next game and held serve to tie it 3-3.
Williams responded by taking the next three games to close out the match.
Playing in her first match since losing the Wimbledon final three weeks ago, Williams started the match hot but was slowed down considerably in a second set that saw her double-fault four times and win just 1 of her 8 second-serve points.
The 59th-ranked Begu, who earned her spot in the main draw with two qualifying wins over the weekend, broke Williams twice in the second set then served it out for the 6-3 win.
It took Williams just 11 minutes to build a 3-0 lead in the first set before Begu showed any sign of life by winning the fourth game. Williams broke her opponent again and held serve to take the set 6-1.
In the final match of the evening, Montreal's Francoise Abanda was dropped in straight sets by Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic. Safarova took it 6-4, 6-4.
Williams is enjoying remarkable success this season, having reached two Grand Slam finals, including Wimbledon last month. Her Australian Open finals appearance — where she lost to sister Serena — marked her first Grand Slam title bout in seven and a half years.
"Two from three [Grand Slam finals] is amazing so I still think she has a chance to win a Grand Slam and she still has the power to win any of the tournaments," World No. 1 Karolina Pliskova said of Williams during a media session earlier Monday.
While the American has had plenty of success worldwide, she has yet to win a Rogers Cup title. Williams is competing in the Canadian tournament for the eighth time and hoping to improve on her runner-up performance in 2014.
Williams had lost her opening match at the Rogers Cup five times coming into Monday.
Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic had the first upset of the Rogers Cup, downing No. 13 Kristina Mladenovic 6-2, 6-3 in one hour 15 minutes in one of the early matches.
Strycova, ranked No. 26 in the world, broke her opponent six times and won 71 per cent of her first serve points.
The afternoon session saw another upset as qualifier Varvara Lepchenko of the United States edged Latvian 12th seed Jelena Ostapenko 1-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(5).
Ostapenko, the 20-year-old who won this year's French Open, was cruising through the first set before running into trouble with her serve. Lepchenko broke Ostapenko four times in the second set and once more in the third.
In other first-round action, Daria Gavrilova of Australia beat Spain's Lara Arruabarrena 6-3, 6-3, Russian Daria Kasatkina got past Roberta Vinci of Italy 7-6(3), 7-6(1), and Naomi Osaka of Japan advanced after Britain's Heather Watson retired in the second set, taking the match 6-1, 4-1.
Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens moved on after Ana Konjuh of Croatia retired following a 6-2 first set and Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova topped American Sachia Vickery 6-1, 7-6(3).
Sloane Stephens of the U.S., Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia and Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova also advanced to the second round.
Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., faces Timea Babos of Hungary in her first round match on Tuesday. Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., plays Croatian qualifier Donna Vekic in the afternoon.