Leylah Fernandez breezes to 54-minute, 1st-round victory in Germany
Bianca Andreescu also advances; mixed Canadian results in Wimbledon qualifying
Canada's Leylah Fernandez rolled to a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Germany's Lena Papadakis in first-round play Monday at the Bad Homburg Open in Germany.
Fernandez, from Laval, Que., needed only 54 minutes to complete the victory at the WTA Tour 250-level event.
She will play Anna Blinkova in the second round. The ninth-seeded Russian posted a 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 victory over Germany's Sabine Lisicki.
Fifth-seeded Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., advanced later in the day with a 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 victory over Britain's Sonay Kartal.
Andreescu will next face Spain's Rebeka Masarova, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus.
WATCH | Andreescu outlasts British opponent in German tourney opener:
Diallo wins, Pospisil loses at Wimbledon
Canada's Gabriel Diallo defeated Turkey's Cem Ilkel 6-3, 4-6, 6-1 in first-round qualifying play Monday at Wimbledon in London.
Diallo, the world No. 140 from Montreal, will face Matteo Gigante in the next round. The 254th-ranked Italian defeated Britain's Harry Wendelken 6-3, 7-6 (6) to advance.
The six-foot-eight Diallo is seeded 29th in the qualification draw. Three victories are needed to secure a berth in the main draw at the Grand Slam event.
Vasek Pospisil, a native of Vernon, B.C., dropped a 6-2, 7-6 (2) decision to Brazil's Felipe Meligeni Alves.
Three Canadians are entered in the women's qualifying draw.
Carol Zhao of Richmond Hill, Ont., was scheduled to open against Britain's Emily Appleton. Toronto's Katherine Sebov was to meet Italy's Nuria Brancaccio and Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., was to play Belgium's Greet Minnen.
Wimbledon champ Rybakina has viral illness
Elena Rybakina withdrew from the Eastbourne International citing a viral illness on Monday, a week before she's due to defend her Wimbledon title.
Eastbourne, where Rybakina was seeded No. 1, made the announcement before her scheduled first-round match in England.
Rybakina withdrew last month from the French Open, also citing a vial illness, before her third-round match. Since then, the Kazakh appeared at the Berlin Open last week and lost in the second round.
Former No. 1 Karolina Pliskova, a two-time Eastbourne champion, moved past Elise Mertens when the Belgian retired with a left hip injury while trailing 6-7 (3), 6-3, 3-0.
Pliskova, the Eastbourne winner in 2017 and 2019, will play Daria Kasatkina next.
On the men's side, sixth-seeded Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina lost his opener to J.J. Wolf of the United States 6-2, 6-4. Wolf earned his first tour win on grass.
Swiatek stays atop the WTA rankings
Iga Swiatek, who recently won the French Open for a third time, remained at No. 1 in the ATP rankings on Monday as she has for every week since first climbing to that position in April 2022.
Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka kept her hold on No. 2, and defending Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina is at No. 3. Jessica Pegula moved up to No. 4, switching with No. 5 Caroline Garcia.
Carlos Alcaraz replaced Novak Djokovic at No. 1 in the ATP rankings, meaning the 20-year-old Spaniard is expected to have the top seeding at Wimbledon.
There was no other major change in the men's rankings Monday, with Daniil Medvedev still at No. 3, followed by Casper Ruud at No. 4 and Stefanos Tsitsipas at No. 5. Taylor Fritz, who is from California, and Frances Tiafoe, who is from Maryland, were at Nos. 9-10, remaining the first pair of American men in the top 10 in more than a decade.
The All England Club will announce the men's and women's seeds Wednesday and is expected to simply follow the ATP and WTA rankings for those 32 berths in each 128-player singles draw.
Wimbledon's seedings used to be based on a formula that took into account players' recent success there and at other events contested on grass courts.
But with only the rankings mattering now, there is the unusual situation of even last year's results at the All England Club not mattering — because the ATP and WTA chose to withhold all rankings points that would have been earned at Wimbledon in 2022 to protest the club's decision to ban players from Russia and Belarus over the invasion of Ukraine.
That war continues, but the club is allowing Russians and Belarusians to compete this time. Play begins at Wimbledon on July 3.
With files from The Associated Press
