Five Things We Learned from Day 3 of the Rogers Cup - Sportsnet.ca

It was a jam-packed day at the Rogers Cup on Wednesday, with a line-up featuring plenty of stars, tournament favourites and a healthy dose of Canadian content.

Here are five things we learned from Day 3 at the Rogers Cup:

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Pain too much for Raonic against Auger-Aliassime

The match of the day came in the form of an all-Canadian matchup between Milos Raonic and teenager Felix Auger-Aliassime.

Both players looked like threats to make a deep run following their opening round wins, and didn’t disappoint through two sets, at least.

Auger-Aliassime came out of the gates roaring and was in tune with his serves, taking the first set 6-3.

Down 4-2 in the second-set, Auger-Aliassime, ranked No. 21 in the world, nearly broke Roanic’s serve, taking a 40-0 lead. But Raonic locked in and took the game to deuce on a rocketing ace, securing a 5-2 lead two points later.

Following the game, Raonic met with his medical trainer and for a moment it seemed he may retire due to a back injury. But Raonic returned to the court, where he seemed to be playing with an edge perhaps fuelled by the frustration that he felt pain just as he appeared to be taking over the match.

Auger-Aliassime remained aggressive and tried to move Raonic around the court, but Raonic would take the set 6-3 on a dominant service game.

He had the momentum, and his opponent’s 13 unforced errors in the second set were more signs of optimism for Raonic, but tennis fans in Montreal didn’t get what was sure to be a killer third-set.

Raonic withdrew from the match after the second set and left the court looking disappointed with the turn of events.

Auger-Aliassime will celebrate his 19th birthday on Thursday with a centre court match against sixth-seeded Karen Khachanov, who beat Stan Wawrinka in three sets.

Andreescu’s stamina proving a key asset

In her second match since returning from a shoulder injury that has kept the rising star out of action for the most part since March, the 19-year-old was put to the test with her second-straight three-set match of the tournament following her win over Eugenie Bouchard.

On Wednesday, it was Daria Kasatkina — who had defeated 12-seed Angelique Kerber on Monday — across the court, and the 21 year-old Russian certainly pushed Andreescu.

Tied 5-5 in the first set, Andreescu, after missed points, raised her arms in frustration before double-faulting game point to give Kasatkina a 6-5 lead and eventual 7-5 victory in the first set, which she took with an ace.

That seemed to do the trick for Andreescu, who responded with a convincing 6-2 second set peppered with several powerful shots that suggested she’s poised to pick up where she left off pre-injury, speed-climbing her way up the rankings from outside the top 100 to as high as 22 and, currently, 27th.

But in the third set she wavered as Kasatkina took a 5-4 lead, but Andreescu showed a ton of fight regrouping to tie the set at five apiece before breaking her opponents serve and advancing 5-7, 6-2, 7-5, setting up a match with fifth-seed Dutch player Kiki Bertens.

What. A. Comeback.

After dropping the first 5-7, Bianca Andreescu storms back to move onto the 3R at the @RogersCup. #RC19 pic.twitter.com/y6wJjG0qy6

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) August 7, 2019

Shapovalov staying optimistic despite loss

While Andreescu secured the win, the same couldn’t be said for fellow Canadian star Denis Shapovalov.

Shapovalov faced an uphill battle on Wednesday against second-seed Dominic Thiem, whom the Canadian shares a fair bit of history with, having trained with the 25 year-old Austrian over the years.

After an exciting opening two sets, it looked like the match would come down to the wire, but a turning point came midway through the third set with Shapovalov trailing 4-3. First, a couple of errant forehands — the kind of do-or-die shot attempts that swing matches for Shapovalov — fell just outside of the lines. Then another unforced error — an overhead slam that found its way into the net — brought Thiem’s lead to 5-3 and he finished the job from there.

“Against Denis, it was special because he’s a local hero. I mean, all the crowd was supporting him, so it was tough,” said Thiem, who snapped his career winless record at the Rogers Cup with the win, setting up another stellar matchup, this time versus Marin Cilic, who won handily on Wednesday.

Shapovalov’s challenging year (15-17 in matches thus far in 2019) and tough summer (four-straight first round exits before his Rogers Cup win on Monday) continues — and it will remain difficult for the 20-year old to get back on track given that he’ll find himself facing top-ranked opponents early in tournaments, as was the case in Montreal.

After the match, the Canadian said he only takes positives from the loss given how well he played against a top-ranked opponent, and added he felt he had a good chance to win.

“It was enjoyable. I really enjoyed my two matches on court, even today losing. It was a lot of fun to kind of go out there, play against a great player like Dominic, really put it to the test, see what damage I can do.

“I think if a couple of shots had went my way, I could have definitely won the match.”

Halep in cruise control after scare

We already saw world No. 1 and Rogers Cup top seed Ashleigh Barty fall on Tuesday, and on Wednesday at least one of the tournament’s top players nearly met the same fate.

In the afternoon, No. 4-seed Simona Halep was pushed to the brink by 24-year-old American Jennifer Brady.

Less than a month removed from her Wimbledon championship — the second grand slam title of her career — she returned to singles action for the first time and showed only the slightest signs of rust in the face of a difficult and determined opponent.

Brady took the first set from Halep 6-4 before the former world No. 1 took the second set 7-5.

Despite taking a medical timeout to tend to her Achilles, which she said bothered her from the outset of the match, Halep appeared to be in cruise control, taking a 4-0 lead in the final set. But the 76th-ranked Brady was relentless and took the third set to a tiebreak. In front of a strong contingent of cheering Romanian fans in Toronto, Halep outlasted Brady and got the win.

Several stars advance in tournament unscathed

In addition to Halep, there were a slew of stars and top-ranked players in action Wednesday, albeit most had a far easier time to punch their ticket to the next round.

Rafael Nadal, the top seed on the men’s side, faced a challenge in Britain’s Daniel Evans and needed a tiebreak to win the first set before taking the match, which was interrupted to rain delay, 7-5, 6-4.

In Toronto, second-seed Naomi Osaka took the first set of her match against Germany’s Tatjana Maria 6-2 before Maria retired to injury.

Eigth-seed Serena Williams, the most decorated player in the field, made it through the second round unscathed with a convincing 6-3, 6-3 straight sets win.

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August 08, 2019 at 09:38AM