ATP Rogers Cup Update

With Day Four of the Rogers Cup underway, here is the latest from Aviva Centre in Toronto.

Qualifiers and wild cards might have found success over the first two days at the Rogers Cup in Toronto, and while it created great stories for writers and fans alike to tell, most knew it would only last for so long.

After all it’s a Masters 1000 event; this is where the best of the best with the most experience on the ATP World Tour go deep into the tournament. Who are we trying to kid. Day three was a mixed bag of success and disappointment for that group.

The biggest upset of the day came when American qualifier Ryan Harrison beat the top American in the world, John Isner playing his kind of match: a longer match, 7-6, 6-7, 6-4. Isner was out of sorts all day with his first serve and he made far to many unforced errors.

Qualifier Radek Stepanek took down wild card Peter Polansky 7-6 (5), 6-4. American Jared Donaldson also continued his hot play with an impressive 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Fabio Fognini who won last week at Umag.

That is where the fun ended.

Kei Nishikori took care of American qualifier Dennis Novikov on the first match on Centre Court in straight sets 6-4, 7-5. Bernard Tomic beat Canadian wildcard 6-3, 7-6 (4). Much to the chagrin of all the home supporters, two more Canadian wild cards also saw their tournament run end in the second round. Grigor Dimitrov defeated Denis Shapovalov under the lights at the Stadium 6-4, 6-3.

Wednesday’s action was headlined by the two biggest names in the tournament: World number one Novak Djokovic, and the poster boy for this tournament, Canadian world number six Milos Raonic.

Raonic, playing the afternoon/early evening match on Centre Court, breezed by Yen-Hsun Lu 6-3, 6-3. He dictated the points on his second serve and the second return, and eight aces with 78% of total service points won tends to help.

Raonic is ready to be the best player in the world and win grand slam titles, and after being a finalist at Wimbledon on the grass, he had no trouble adjusting to the hard court surface. Raonic’s big serve should make him a great hard court player for years to come. So far in his career, he is 167-67 on hard surfaces, including 17-3 this season.

Djokovic has dominated on all surfaces, but his game rises to a new level on the hard court. Despite this, he didn’t have it easy against Giles Mueller and his big serve. Novak had as many aces as double faults, and all the stats are fairly even.

Mueller didn’t do much wrong, but in the end that isn’t good enough to beat the world’s best especially when he works his magic on a couple of points. In the end, it was in straight sets 7-5, 7-6 (3). Djokovic dominated on the long rallies and on the baseline as he usually does, and there were to many of those for Mueller.

Ivo Karlovic continued his hot play defeating eight seed Marian Cilic 6-4, 7-6 (3), Gael Monfils did the same despite struggling in the first set 7-6 (3), 6-0. David Goffin moved on after Sam Querrey had to retire, Kevin Anderson of South Africa also moved on after Dominic Thiem had to retire.

Anderson took advantage today moving on to the elite eight after defeating Bernard Tomic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 today. Kei Nishikori and Stan Wawrinka also got through today beating Americans Rajeev Ram and Jack Sock respectively.

Milos Raonic and Novak Djokovic are in action later today along with Bob and Mike Bryan in doubles action.

Visit atpworldtour.com or rogerscup.com for the latest scores, and updates on the draw and the order of play.

Enjoy the rest of the ATP action on day four, and stay with Lob and Smash for news and updates.