The 2018 Rogers Cup got underway on Monday with a heavy slate of first round matched being squished into a shortened day of play thanks to some uncooperative clouds. The host nation fared quite well on opening day with a pair of hometown heroes kicking off the Canadian Open with victories.
Here's what happened on day one at the Rogers Cup.
Results
The day started out well for the host nation, as hometown boy Peter Polansky kicked off Centre Court action with a straight-sets win over Matthew Ebden. Polansky, who needed a wildcard to enter the draw, held tough to take the opening set in a tiebreak before applying pressure to Ebden throughout the second set. From 3-2 up, he held break points in every Aussie service game, finally converting as his opponent served to stay in the match at 4-5. Polansky could meet Novak Djokovic in the second round.
The strong results continued for the hosts in the night session as another hometown boy, Milos Raonic, got off to a brilliant start by crushing tenth seed David Goffin in straight sets. Even by his own lofty standards, the man known as “the Missile” was dominant on serving, going a perfect 27 for 27 on his first serve. Check out the full recap here.
It wasn't all good news for the hosts as Vasek Pospisil saw his Canadian Open campaign end in the first round at the hands of Borna Coric. The young Croatian took advantage of a ton of errors of the veteran's racquet, knocking off the 2013 semifinalist in straight sets.
One of the biggest first-round encounters in the difficult Rogers Cup draw pitted 11th seed Diego Schwartzman against Kyle Edmund, the highest-ranked non-seeded player in the draw. However, the match did not live up to expectations as Schwartzman only lost three games, taking the match 6-1, 6-2.
Rain was a major factor on day one, with three matches being forced to stop while what felt like all of Lake Ontario was dropped on Toronto. Jack Sock and Daniil Medvedev were just starting the third set of their battle when they were forced back to the dressing room. Medvedev eventually prevailed once play resumed almost three hours later. Check out the full recap here.
When the rain came, Albert Ramos-Vinolas was up a set over Pierre Hugues-Herbert, although the Frenchman was serving for the second set. Herbert would take the set and third for the win. American qualifier Bradley Klahn had perhaps the worst luck, as he was up 6-3 in the first set tiebreak of his clash with former world number three David Ferrer when they were forced to leave the court. When play resumed Klahn would miss the first two set points but converted his third to take the opener, eventually winning in straight sets.
In other action, Benoit Paire set up a second-round clash with top seed Rafael Nadal by defeating Jared Donaldson in straight sets. Qualifier Ilya Ivashka ousted Yuichi Sugita, Fernando Verdasco blew out Peter Gojowczyk, and Marton Fucsovics topped Joao Sousa. 12th seed Pablo Carreno Busta was also victorious when his opponent, Yoshihito Nishioka, retired after dropping the opening set 6-0.
First round action continues tomorrow with two more young Canadians, including Denis Shapovalov, in action, as well as Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic.
