Big win for Shapovalov, painful loss for Raonic at Rogers Cup
Canadian teen Denis Shapovalov earns date with Rafael Nadal
It was a short, painful Rogers Cup for Milos Raonic.
The hard-serving Raonic, seeded sixth, lost 6-4, 6-4 to Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in his opening match on Wednesday night while playing through a left wrist injury that flared up this week.
"It's quite minor in the sense of 'can I get worse or not,' but it wasn't minor in the sense of quantity of pain," said Raonic. "I've been on anti-inflammatories to get the swelling down, not specifically painkillers.
"More just because my wrist at this moment, from the scanning I did, has quite a bit of fluid in it."
Raonic, of Thornhill, Ont., said he was confident it will heal in short order and that he will be fit for the U.S. Open at the end of the month.
He said he may have withdrawn from the tournament if it wasn't in his home country.
"I would have had definitely a different level of consideration to it, that's for sure," he said. "I definitely wanted to have a different storyline here.
"It wasn't necessarily the case. Hopefully I can turn it around very quickly because this was not a level of tennis to be proud of."
Earlier, Canadian teenager Denis Shapovalov downed former U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro.
The 18-year-old Shapovalov took the second-round match 6-3, 7-6 (4).
"He's my idol," said Shapovalov of the unseeded Del Potro, who has struggled with injuries since winning the 2009 U.S. Open. "Just to play against him is a huge honour for me.
"But to beat a player of this category, of this talent, is very inspiring for me, a huge confidence boost."
Shapovalov advanced to a third-round meeting with Rafael Nadal, the top seed and a three-time Rogers Cup winner. The Spaniard has battled injuries in recent years but is back in the hunt for the world No.1 ranking after winning his 10th French Open title this year.
"He's another guy I grew up watching," said Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont. "I've seen him win so many slams.
"Every time I look at him, I think what a ridiculous athlete and what a ridiculous player he is. It's going to be very interesting for me to go up against him, just to see how my game style matches him. I'm going to try to make the most of it."
Nadal breezed past Borna Coric of Croatia 6-1, 6-2.
Shapovalov became the youngest player to reach the round of 16 of a Master Series tournament since Nadal in 2004 at Miami.
It likely had mostly to do with Roger Federer playing earlier in the day, but the centre court stands were packed, which is unusual for a weekday afternoon. They threw full support behind the left-handed Shapovalov, who caused a stir at last year's Rogers Cup by ousting Aussie star Nick Kyrgios.
"I've never played in an atmosphere like this," he said. "On match point, when I hit that double right before it, I mean, my ears almost popped. They were cheering so loud, it was insane. It's just so much fun to be out there."
Second-seeded Federer made short work of Toronto's Peter Polansky, winning 6-2, 6-1 in 53 minutes.
Federer, a two-time Rogers Cup champion ranked third in the world by ATP, has had a surprise resurgence this season by posting his 18th and 19th career grand slam wins at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
It was his first match of the hard court season that leads up to the U.S. Open.
"I think this tournament I'm trying to play with confidence that I gained through the grass court season," said Federer. "I have to adjust my game a little bit just because the bounce of the ball is so much higher here than at Wimbledon, and there's wind, which in Wimbledon we didn't have much of."
"It's just really to see how it goes this week, and then learn from this week, how I need to then play in Cincinnati (next week) and the U.S. Open."
"Even though I lost, this is one of the most memorable experiences of my life along with the match I played against him in Toronto," said Polansky. "His transition from the baseline to the net, it's a joke.
"You blink and he's at the net. You hit balls pretty hard at him and he's handling them like it's no problem. Guys I'm used to playing, if I hit really hard, they'll kind of block it but he's constantly moving forward like a freight train."
WOMEN: Pliskova asserts her No. 1 status
Karolina Pliskova stepped onto the court, shook off some nerves, and began her run as World No. 1 on a positive note.
The 25-year-old from the Czech Republic downed Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday to reach the third round of the Rogers Cup, extending her winning streak over the 19th-ranked player to five straight matches.
"I had a little bit [of nerves] before my match because I really wanted to win this one," Pliskova said. "Also I knew I have a good record against her. So I just knew if I play solid and OK I can win it."
As the top seed, Pliskova received a bye into the second round. She became the World No. 1 when Johanna Konta beat Romania's Simona Halep in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
Halep defeated Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova 6-3, 6-4, in one of the day's late matches. Halep was the crowd favourite with a sizable contingent from her home in Romania cheering her on.
Pliskova, who fired four aces and broke Pavlyuchenkova seven times over the one hour 12 minute match, said that being the top player in the world didn't make her feel any different before it started.
"I was not really thinking about this," she said before assessing her play.
"I think some moments [of the match] were OK, but otherwise the serve was not great and overall I was not real happy with my game today. But it was enough and so another chance tomorrow to improve."
In other second-round play, ninth-seed Venus Williams earned her second career win in Toronto, a 7-5, 7-5 victory over Katerina Siniakova. Williams, the runner-up at the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year, hadn't won in the Canadian city until she beat Irina-Camelia Begu in the first round on Monday.