ATP Rogers Cup Day Two Recap

It’s time to recap of all the action from Day Two on the men’s side at the Rogers Cup in Toronto.

Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka has a huge opportunity this week as he get’s his North American hard court swing underway.

If he wins his second career Masters 1000 level title, Wawrinka would pass Rafael Nadal for the number four ranking in the world inching closer to his fellow countryman Rodger Federer for number three in the world. Federer announced today that he will miss the rest of the season due to injury.

The current world number five known to his fans as Stan the Man is off to a great start this week. It wasn’t easy with the match lasting exactly two hours, but a 7-6 (7/3), 7/6 (10/8) victory over Mikhail Youzhny got the two-time grand slam champion is through to round three.

Wawrinka displayed a great backhand in the match, and he used that shot to win on his first set point opportunity. Both players traded breaks in the early stages, but Wawrinka was at his best when it mattered most in the opening set. He trailed 5-4 and had to fight off set point.

After Youzhny took a three games to love lead in the second set, it looked like this match was heading for a deciding third set. But Wawrinka won the next two games, and once again fought through another tiebreak that went to eight all thanks to some errant shots from the tournaments second seed.

Despite hitting 31 winners and winning 81 percent of his first serve points and 57 percent of his second serve points, Wawrinka made far to many errors at critical times something he is going to have to shore up.

Wawrinka had lost all of his previous matches on hard courts to Youzhny but they hadn’t faced each other since the 2010 U.S. Open.

Fifth seed Tomas Berdych was the first man through to round three with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over 19-year-old Borna Coric. It wasn’t easy against the next-gen star for the Czech. He dropped the first set thanks largely to blowing a 40-15 lead on serve in game one. He was up 0-30 in the next game looking to break right back but big serves from Coric gave him a 2-0 lead.

The first set was backbreaking but Berdych recovered to dominate the second set 6-1, and despite looking fragile in the third set, an early break of serve to make it 2-1 was all he needed improving to 3-0 against Coric in head-to-head meetings.

Eleven other matches took place today to conclude the Round of 64 with two seeds falling.

American and 15 seed Steve Johnson falling in straight sets to Fabio Fognini 6-4 6-4. Fognini continued his great form after he won last week at Umag, while Johnson struggled with his second serve all day winning just 29 percent of the points.

Frenchman and 14 seed Benoit Paire also dropped his first round affair to qualifier Radek Stepanek in straight sets 6-1, 6-3.

Those two results might be considered the biggest upsets because they came at the hands of seeded players, but Alexander Zverev’s straight sets loss to Yen-Hsun Lu is even more stunning. Zverev, the 25th ranked player in the world made two finals earlier this year in Halle and Nice.

The most enjoyable match of the day was Ivo Karlovic against young American Taylor Fritz. It’s unbelievable how good Karlovic’s serve is but that is what has carried him to back-to-back finals in his last two starts. Fritz won the first set but lost the match 7-6, 6-7, 2-6.

It was a good day for the most part for Americans with Donald Young, Dennis Novikov, qualifier Jared Donaldson, and Rajeev Ram all winning their matches. Canadian Vasek Pospisil won his match after Jeremy Chardy retired before set number two began due to injury.

Gael Monfils, who won the Citi Open last Sunday was another big winner on Tuesday.

For full match results and stats from day two visit atpworldtour.com

Jul 24, 2016; Toronto, Ontario; Novak Djokovic of Serbia talks to the media during qualifying of the Rogers Cup tennis tournament at the Aviva Centre. Mandatory Credit: Nick Turchiaro-USA TODAY Sports /

Updated Draw: http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/scores/current/toronto/421/draws

The most exciting day of the tournament so far happens to be tomorrow.

World number one Novak Djokovic will get his tournament underway on Centre Court against Gilles Mueller after Kei Nishikori plays Novikov. Later that evening, Milos Raonic will face Lu.

Others in action include Dominic Thiem, John Isner, Berdych, Marian Cilic, Sam Querrey, and Canadian Denis Shapovalov trying to back up his first round win over Nick Kyrigos.

Order of Play: http://www.atpworldtour.com/en/scores/current/toronto/421/daily-schedule

Stay tuned to Lob and Smash for more coverage of the Rogers Cup from a ATP and WTA perspective!

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