Toronto: Stan Wawrinka and Novak Djokovic reached the second round of the Toronto Masters tennis tournament here, Tuesday, with both men polishing their pre-US Open form.
Wawrinka put his comeback from knee surgery back on track with a 1-6, 7-5, 7-5 comeback win over Nick Kyrgios while Wimbledon winner Djokovic eased to victory, beating Mirza Basic 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).
A pair of Canadian teenagers also advanced, with Denis Shapovalov dominating Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-1, 6-4 while good friend Felix Auger-Aliassime, who turns 18 n Wednesday, thrilled his home fans as he defeated Lucas Pouille of France 6-4, 6-3.
Wawrinka has been struggling to find his best form since returning to the ATP Tour after two knee operations a year ago and has slumped to No.195 in the world rankings.
“I’m looking for confidence. I’m looking for matches,” Wawrinka said after his win. “I’m grateful I got the wildcard to play directly in the main draw. I knew it was going to be a tough match, but any victory is good to get more confidence,” the Swiss player added.
The 33-year-old Wawrinka broke late in the second set to level the match, and completed his fightback on a second match point as he also broke in the 12th game of the decider.
Djokovic, a four-time winner in Canada, double faulted while serving for the match to slip into a second set tie-break, but he finished the job for a second-round spot.
“(I need) the consistency of playing on a high level match after match, I haven’t had that post-surgery for several months,” Djokovic said. “I was struggling to play two or three matches in a row consistently well. So that has changed and obviously feels good.”
Easy for Azarenka
At the WTA Montreal Open, former World No.1 Victoria Azarenka, who kicked off her campaign with a 6-0, 6-1 win over Kristina Mladenovic. Last week Azarenka had retired from the San Jose tournament with an injured back.
“I feel better,” Azarenka said. “It was definitely pretty bad in San Jose to have such a sudden thing with my back. I was hoping it would be nothing serious, but sometimes when you’re in the moment and get a really bad spasm, there’s nothing you can do.”
Azarenka stormed through the first nine games of the match before France’s Mladenovic got on the board.
Elsewhere, Maria Sharapova made quick work of Bulgarian qualifier Sesil Karatantcheva, easily winning 6-1, 6-2 in a renewal of their former teenage rivalry.
Sharapova next faces another Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, who is ranked sixth in the world. Garcia came from behind to defeat Magdalena Rybarikova in three sets 4-6, 6-1, 6-3.