A trio of seeded Americans had their way with their respective opponents on Wednesday, as Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul and Ben Shelton completed sweeps in the first round of the National Bank Open in Montreal.
The ninth-seeded Fritz beat Mariano Navone of Argentina 6-4, 6-1. Paul, the No. 10 seed, topped Italy’s Luciano Darderi 6-4, 7-6 (2), and the 11th-seeded Shelton ousted Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik 7-6 (4), 6-2.
Shelton and Bublik are doubles partners, and their match ended in jovial fashion.
Down 5-2 in the second set, Bublik couldn’t get to a drop shot from Shelton that landed near the front of the net, so he threw his racquet at the ball. The strategy ended up working, as the ball bounced off Bublik’s loose racquet and landed on Shelton’s side.
However, the shot didn’t count since Bublik didn’t have the racquet in his hands.
That moment got a laugh out of both Shelton and Bublik, who then hugged at the net. It will only be Shelton moving on, though, and he will next face Australian Alexei Popyrin, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic on Tuesday.
“I think the consistency in my tennis is improving every week,” Shelton said. “I’m feeling more and more comfortable. … Surely not the player that I want to be in the future, but I think I’m moving the right way with a lot of things and finding identity on court.”
Meanwhile, Fritz held commanding advantages in winners (19-3) and aces (7-1) against Navone.
“It was a solid match. I feel like the level, probably from both of us, went up a bit in the second set,” Fritz said. “We started playing longer points.”
Another American, qualifier Brandon Nakashima, also prevailed, defeating Canadian wild card Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 7-5.
Fellow American qualifier Mackenzie McDonald fell, though, as Matteo Arnaldi of Italy outlasted him for a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory. McDonald was one of the two Americans to lose on Wednesday, joining Marcos Giron, who was swept by lucky loser James Duckworth of Australia.
Other winners Tuesday included 12th seed Ugo Humbert and qualifier Arthur Rinderknech of France, Croatian qualifier Borna Coric, Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and qualifier Rinky Hijikata and Jordan Thompson of Australia.
In night action, Italy’s Flavio Cobolli upset No. 14 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada 6-3, 6-2. Another Canadian bowed out when Vasek Pospisil retired due to a lower-body injury while trailing 2-1 in the first set against the United States’ Sebastian Korda. Australian qualifier Thanasi Kokkinakis downed France’s Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-3.
–Field Level Media
