Canadian fifth seed Denis Shapovalov was a major casualty in the second round of the National Bank Open in Toronto after a straight-sets defeat to Francis Tiafoe.

Unseeded American Tiafoe swept aside the local 6-1 6-4 in one hour and 15 minutes to secure his third-round spot against 11th seed Gael Monfils who beat John Millman 3-6 6-3 6-4.

Tiafoe was only in the Toronto main draw as a lucky loser after being defeated in qualifying by Emil Ruusuvuori but he hit 14 winners in an emphatic display.

World number 10 Shapovalov was unable to generate any break points while Tiafoe reeled off five games in a row, with two breaks, to win the first set.

The Canadian continued to struggle with his serve in windy conditions, as the American world number 52 won 88 per cent (23/26) of points on his first serve.

Another local hope, ninth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, also was eliminated, going down 7-5 6-4 to Serbian Dusan Lajovic.

The Canadian hit six aces to Lajovic's none, but was undone by unforced errors at key times, with a double fault gifting the Serbian a 6-5 lead in the opening set.

Australian 12th seed Alex de Minaur also bowed out after a one-sided 6-1 6-1 defeat to Georgian world number 42 Nicolas Basilashvili.

Basilashvili sent down 6-2 aces and converted five of his six break points generated in an impressive display.

Australian qualifier Jack Duckworth booked a third-round ticket against top seed Daniil Medvedev after upsetting 16th seed Jannik Sinner, who won last week's Citi Open.

Fourth seed Andrey Rublev won through with a 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 victory over Fabio Fognini, while seventh seed Hubert Hurkacz progressed with a walkover after Kei Nishikori retired with a shoulder injury.

Eighth seed Diego Schwartzman beat Benoit Paire 7-5 6-1, while 10th seed Roberto Bautista Agut handled Tommy Paul 6-3 6-4.

John Isner knocked out 13th seed Cristian Garin in three sets, while Lloyd Harris beat Feliciano Lopez in two and Karen Khachanov defeated compatriot Aslan Karatsev 7-6 (9-7) 6-4 to secure a third-round meeting with third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Tsitsipas pledged to help those affected by the fires in his homeland in his post-match press conference on Tuesday.

“My heart is with all the people of Greece,” Tsitsipas said. “I come from the south suburbs of Athens. When I was there a few days ago, I could see the fires from the south. Huge, giant clouds, smoke, which you could see from far, far away. It wasn't very nice. Even at the beach that day when I went to swim, you could see all the debris from the smoke and from the fires in the sea.”

Daniil Medvedev and Stefanos Tsitsipas survived three-set scares at the National Bank Open on Tuesday, but five-time tournament champion Rafael Nadal departed Toronto without even taking the court. 

Top seed Medvedev, who won just three games against Nadal in the final in 2019, the last time the tournament was played, prevailed 4-6 6-3 6-4 in his opener against Alexander Bublik.

The man Nadal beat to win the title the previous year, Tsitsipas, failed to convert on five match points in an epic second-set tiebreak but recovered to down Ugo Humbert 6-3 6-7 (13-15) 6-1.

Nadal pulled out ahead of a scheduled match against Lloyd Harris, who beat him last week in Washington as the 20-time grand slam winner struggled with a foot injury. 

Countryman Feliciano Lopez replaces Nadal in the draw and will face Harris on Wednesday. 

Elsewhere Tuesday, sixth seed Casper Ruud needed more than two hours to put away Marin Cilic 6-3 3-6 6-3, while 14th seed Grigor Dimitrov suffered a quick 6-3 6-4 exit against big-serving American Reilly Opelka.

A pair of unseeded veterans advanced, with 2016 finalist Kei Nishikori a 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 winner over Miomir Kecmanovic and John Isner defeating Alejandro Davidovich Fokini 6-4 6-1 in just over an hour.

Two days after appearing in his first ATP Tour final at the Citi Open, Mackenzie McDonald fell 6-3 6-4 to Benoit Paire in his Toronto opener. 

In other first-round matches, Karen Khachanov beat Cameron Norrie 6-4 5-7 6-4, Frances Tiafoe downed Yoshihito Nishioka 6-4 6-3, Dusan Lajovic handled Emil Ruusuvuori 3-6 6-3 6-3 and Nikoloz Basilashvili defeated Jenson Brooksby 2-6 6-0 6-4.

Rafael Nadal has withdrawn from the National Bank Open ahead of his opening match due to a left foot injury.

The Spaniard made a return to action on the ATP Tour last week at the Citi Open, his first outing since suffering defeat to Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals of the French Open in June.

His comeback was aimed at getting prepared for the US Open but, having lost in the last 16 in Washington to Lloyd Harris, he will not now be participating in Toronto.

"I really wanted to play here a lot, but now is the moment to make a decision, and this is unfortunately the decision that I have taken," Nadal told the media.

"I have had this issue for a couple of months, as people know.

"Of course, it is not a happy situation after all the success that I had here in Canada, not being able to play this year after missing a year. It's a tough one, but that's how it is today."

Nadal skipped Wimbledon citing the need to recover after the clay season, while the left-hander also opted out of representing his country at the Tokyo Olympics.

The five-time champion in Toronto was scheduled for a repeat meeting with Harris in the second round. Instead, his place in the draw goes to compatriot Feliciano Lopez.

South African Lloyd Harris booked a second-round date with Rafael Nadal at the National Bank Open after a straight-sets win over Canadian qualifier Brayden Schnur on Monday.

World number 49 Harris eased past Ontario-born Schnur 6-3 6-2 in one hour and 17 minutes in Toronto.

Harris sent down nine aces, winning 78 per cent of points on his first serve, converting four from four break points on return.

Nadal is a five-time champion in Toronto, winning the previous two editions in 2018 and 2019.

Marin Cilic, who won his first title for three years in Stuttgart, beat Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-2 4-6 6-3 in two hours and 13 minutes.

The 32-year-old will face sixth seed Casper Ruud in the next round.

Fabio Fognini also needed three sets to progress, battling from behind to defeat Jan-Lennard Struff 6-7 (2-7) 6-2 6-4 to set up a meeting with Andrey Rublev.

Ugo Humbert impressed in his straight-sets defeat of Lorenzo Sonego and will next face third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, while qualifier James Duckworth beat Taylor Fritz to secure a showdown with Citi Open winner Jannik Sinner.

Alexander Bublik defeated Briton Dan Evans in straight sets to earn a second round meeting with top seed Daniil Medvedev, while Australian John Millman will face 11th seed Gael Monfils after beating Ricardas Berankis.

Reilly Opelka came from a set down to win over Australian Nick Kyrgios, while Tommy Paul also fought back to beat Canadian Vasek Pospisil.

Karolina Muchova was a casualty in the first round of the National Bank Open as she was stunned by Oceane Dodin in Montreal on Monday.

The 14th seed was undone by the French qualifier despite Dodin sending down 10 double faults.

The 6-3 1-6 6-2 success was Dodin's first over a top-25 player this season.

Former U.S. Open finalists and 16th seed Madison Keys was also a first-round casualty, going down 6-3 6-3 to Canadian Rebecca Marino.

Toronto-born Marino, currently ranked 220th in the world, won in one hour and six minutes, converting four of her eight break points, while she saved four from five too.

However, there were no such problems for Ons Jabeur, the 13th seed strolling to a 6-1 6-3 victory over Clara Burel.

Eleventh seed Maria Sakkari also had a routine day, her opponent Marie Bouzkova unable to continue with Sakkari ahead 6-4 3-1.

An Olympic gold medallist in the doubles at Tokyo 2020, Katerina Siniakova had more to celebrate in the singles with a 6-1 6-3 win over long-time rival Jelena Ostapenko.

Elsewhere in the draw, Paula Badosa, Sorana Cirstea, Amanda Anisimova, Nadia Podoroska and Fiona Ferro all progressed.

Novak Djokovic will not play at the Western and Southern Open after a "taxing" run that has brought him to the brink of a calendar Grand Slam.

The world number one's bid for a Golden Slam faltered at the Olympic Games as he lost to Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals in Tokyo.

Djokovic appeared to tire badly and finished fourth in both the men's singles event and the mixed doubles, opting out of the bronze medal match in the latter.

But victories at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon mean 2021 is still on course to be the best year of Djokovic's career.

And the Serbian is taking a little time to prepare himself for the final push at Flushing Meadows, meaning no appearance in Cincinnati next week.

"Dear fans," he wrote on Twitter. "I wanted to share with you that I am taking a bit longer to recover and recuperate after quite a taxing journey from Australia to Tokyo.

"Sadly, that means I won’t be ready to compete in Cincinnati this year, so I'll turn my focus and attention to the US Open and spend some more time with family.

"See you in New York soon!"

Former world number one Andy Murray has been handed a place in the main draw of the US Open after Stanislas Wawrinka pulled out.

Murray, the 2012 champion at Flushing Meadows, reached the second round of the event last year, which was won by Dominic Thiem.

The 34-year-old, who competed in the men's doubles at the Tokyo Olympics, has only played eight Tour-level matches in 2021. He was handed a wildcard for Wimbledon, where he lost in the third round to Denis Shapovalov.

Novak Djokovic is due to lead a strong men's field for the tournament in August, which will be played in front of capacity crowds.

The world number one is seeking to become the first man to win all four major championships in the same year since Rod Laver in 1969.

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, who are tied with Djokovic on 20 grand slam singles titles, are also set to play.

Wawrinka, himself a champion in New York in 2016, is still recovering from his second foot surgery of the year.

With summer's main events about to begin, no one on the WTA tour is hotter than Danielle Collins. 

Two weeks after winning her maiden title in Palermo, Collins claimed the Silicon Valley Classic crown in San Jose, California by defeating Daria Kasatkina 6-3 6-7 (10-12) 6-1 on Sunday.

It was the 10th successive match victory for the American, who is ranked 36th in the world and poised to move up as the hard-court season intensifies with WTA 1000 events at Montreal and Cincinnati ahead of the U.S. Open. 

While it appeared for a while that Collins would cruise to another easy win, Kasatkina made it a fight in the 73-minute second set. 

The Russian had prevailed in the two previous meetings between the players, and she saved two championship points down 4-5 in the second and three more in winning the tiebreak. 

That marked only the second set Collins has dropped during her 10-match run, the other coming against Sloane Stephens in the second round earlier this week. 

Kasatkina's momentum was short-lived, however, as Collins broke her serve early in the third and never looked back.

Before her clay-court title run at Palermo, Collins had been 0-6 in semi-finals in her career. 

Italian teenager Jannik Sinner has claimed his third career ATP Tour title with a three-set victory over Mackenzie McDonald in the Citi Open final on Sunday.

The sixth seed triumphed in two hours and 52 minutes, winning 7-5 4-6 7-5 over the unseeded American, who was competing in his first ATP Tour final.

The Washington, D.C. victory was 19-year-old Sinner's first ATP 500 title and his third on tour, having triumphed in Sofia late last year and Melbourne earlier this year.

Home favourite McDonald put plenty of pressure on Sinner, forcing the Italian to save seven break points for the match.

McDonald also staved off 16 break points in an enthralling contest where the Italian sent down nine aces to the American's five.

Sinner lost his serve twice in the opening set and needed 11 set points but still won 7-5, before the American hit back, dropping further behind the baseline to good effect in the second, levelling it with a 6-4 win.

The Italian claimed an early break in the last to open up a 3-0 lead, before failing to convert two championship points at 5-2.

McDonald brought it back to 5-5, with numerous dramatic rallies throughout, before the 2019 Next Gen ATP Finals champion broke in the 12th game to triumph in the third set.

Andrea Petkovic claimed her first singles title on the WTA Tour in over six years thanks to an emphatic victory over Mayar Sherif at the Winners Open.

Petkovic was far too strong for her Egyptian opponent in Sunday's final, easing to a 6-1 6-1 triumph after just over an hour on court in Cluj-Napoca.

The impressive result sealed the German a seventh tournament win in her career, though she had not reigned at an event since her success in Antwerp back in February 2015.

Sherif had become the first Egyptian to reach a singles final on the WTA Tour and received praise from her opponent during the presentation ceremony.

"This has been a great week, but not only that, what's really important is you're paving the ground for all the girls in a part of the world which doesn't appreciate tennis as much as we do here in Europe," Petkovic said to the 25-year-old.

"It's so much more important than winning every title every week, though I'm sure you will get there as well. 

"Just being out there competing, being the first Egyptian woman to make a WTA final, to break into the top 100, I think that's incredible. I want to congratulate you on that – keep going."

Petkovic raced into a 5-0 lead in the opening set before Sherif held serve; she also survived two break points to move ahead at the start of the second.

However, the second seed reeled off the next six games in a row, clinching the result with a forehand winner.

Roger Federer turned 40 on Sunday amid uncertainty over whether he will grace the stage of a grand slam again.

Both he and Serena Williams, who reaches the same birthday landmark in September, have kept their future plans under wraps.

However, it would come as no surprise now if one, or both, were to retire by the end of the year.

Injuries are taking their toll, and even the greatest champions cannot go on forever.

Stats Perform looked at both Federer and Williams, considering what they may still want to achieve, and their prospects of attaining those remaining goals.

 

Federer's final fling?

Ahead of his 30th birthday, Federer was asked what it felt like to hit such a milestone.

"Birthdays happen. They're part of life," Federer said. "I'm happy I'm getting older. I'd rather be 30 than 20, to be honest. To me it's a nice time."

A decade on, Federer has good reason to be satisfied with life as he chalks up another decade. Family life is good, he'll never need to borrow a dollar, and he has advanced from 16 grand slams to 20.

But the knees would sooner be 30 than 40, and Federer, remarkable sportsman though he is, looks to have entered the lap of honour stage of his career – if he can even complete such a lap.

Two knee operations in 2020 were followed by a setback that ruled him out of the Olympics and will also keep him sidelined for the Toronto and Cincinnati tournaments before the US Open.

Will Federer make it to Flushing Meadows, where he won five successive titles at the height of his career? There has to be doubt over that, and should he indeed be an absentee in New York, what is there left to target? The Laver Cup, perhaps, a tournament in which he is financially invested and which is due to be played in Boston in late September.

Would he play on in 2022? Could he tolerate more long road trips without his family, living in a tennis bubble?

Target: Federer has never settled for second best, and it may have dawned on him at Wimbledon that in all probability he no longer can win a grand slam. Losing a 6-0 set to Hubert Hurkacz on the way to a quarter-final exit would have hurt. The hunger does not go away after 20 grand slams, but Federer's battle-weary body is sending him messages. He will want to go out on his own terms, which means getting fully fit.

Prospects: Assuming the knee issue is not a major problem, and more of a niggle, then Federer could still play the US Open, Laver Cup, Indian Wells and Paris Masters this year. If the mind is willing but the body does not comply, however, then it would not be a shock to see him call time before the Australian Open comes around in January.


Serena still one short of Court

From precocious teenager to queen of the tour, Williams' tennis journey has been a 25-year odyssey and there is nobody more driven to succeed than the great American.

It is an intense frustration that she remains rooted on 23 grand slams, one short of Margaret Court's record haul, and the four grand slam final losses she has suffered while on that mark have been cruel blows.

As her 40th birthday approaches on September 26, prospects of matching Court are fading. The leg injury that cruelly forced her out of Wimbledon in the first round was a harrowing turn of events, given she looked primed to be a big title challenger in London.

She is becoming less of a factor when looking at title favourites, but Williams is still capable of beating top players, still a threat wherever she shows up. It comes down to whether the body lets her chase her goals, and whether the pain of so many near-misses in recent years persuades this great champion the exertion is no longer worth prolonging.

Target: The 24th slam has been the must-have for Williams. Tour titles feel like an irrelevance, and Williams has won just one of those since January 2017, her calendar built around peaking for the majors since returning from giving birth to daughter Olympia.

Prospects: Beating Aryna Sabalenka and Simona Halep at the Australian Open demonstrated Williams still has the game for the big stage, and a semi-final defeat to Naomi Osaka, to whom she has now lost in three of four encounters, should not particularly detract from that. Wimbledon felt like a golden opportunity, with a host of major rivals absent and others struggling for form. There is no doubt she felt that way. Getting to 24 – and beyond – has shifted from feeling like an inevitability to being an odds-against chance now.

Novak Djokovic led the ATP Tour's birthday message to Roger Federer, as the Swiss star celebrated his 40th on Sunday.

Federer, ranked ninth in the world, made his professional debut in 1998. He has gone on to win 20 grand slam titles, a feat matched by only Rafael Nadal and Djokovic, who tied his rivals with his triumph at Wimbledon in July.

His first grand slam title arrived at Wimbledon in 2003, when Federer was aged just 21. In 2004, 2006 and 2007, he won three out of the four majors on offer.

Federer has six Australian Open titles, eight Wimbledon triumphs, five US Open wins and one French Open success to his name, while he has also won six ATP Tour Finals.

Djokovic and Federer have met 50 times on the ATP circuit, with the Serbian shading their head-to-head record with 27 wins – their most recent encounter coming in the semi-finals of the 2020 Australian Open.

Yet it was he who led the tributes to a true great.

"Hey Roger, happy 40th birthday – 40th, wow, what a milestone! You still keep on inspiring and thriving on the court, off the court, inspiring all of us," Djokovic said in a video posted to the ATP Tour's official Twitter account.

"It's been a huge honour to share the tennis court and the tennis circuit with you in the last 15 years.

 

"Hopefully you can still keep on playing. The sport needs you, of course, and thanks for everything you have done and thanks for showing us that even at that age we can play at a very high level.

"All the best, I wish you health and love and happiness with your close ones and thanks again for everything."

Kei Nishikori, who has beaten Federer three times and suffered eight defeats to the Swiss, was next up.

"Roger, happy 40th birthday!" Nishikori said.

"You are still my idol, I always looked up to you and I hope we can play a couple more times and I hope you can still keep going and win grand slams."

World number 15 Felix Auger Aliassime shares his birthday with Federer, though the Canadian is some 19 years junior.

"Hey Roger, the big 40, while I'm just turning 21," he said. "It's amazing for the sport that I'm playing and you're still playing at the same time.

"I hope I'll still be playing when I'm 40 as well. Thank you for everything you've been doing for tennis, it's so good to still have you around, I hope you have a great birthday."

Top seed Elise Mertens was knocked out as Daria Kasatkina won through to the Silicon Valley Classic final where she will meet Danielle Collins.

Fourth seed Kasatkina swept aside world number 17 Mertens in one hour and 21 minutes, winning 6-3 6-2 in San Jose.

The 24-year-old Russian progresses to her fourth final of the WTA season, claiming her third win from four meetings against the Belgian.

The win was former top 10 player Kasatkina's fourth triumph over a top 20 player this year.

Kasatkina broke Mertens three times throughout the match, never dropping her own serve, sending down 4-2 aces.

Mertens was not helped by seven double faults throughout the match, with Kasatkina saving the Belgian's only break point.

Kasatkina will face American seventh seed Danielle Collins who was too good for Ana Konjuh. Collins only needed 52 minutes to win 6-0 6-2 over the Croatian qualifier.

Konjuh struggled on serve throughout, with Collins breaking her six times, while she only won one from 17 points on her second serve.

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