Eight Canadian men combined for only three victories at the National Bank Open in Toronto, and nobody reached the third round. Both Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov lost their opening matches. Vasek Popisil at least performed a decent fight in the last game of his career, but retired with a three-set setback against Facundo Bagnis.
The story in Montreal has been very different for the host country.
A Canadian veteran also retired on the women’s side, but not before Genie Bouchard moved forward one round. The 31-year-old won a three-set thriller against Emiliana Arango and then fell extremely well while she fell apart with a loss of three set for Belinda Bencic.
While we now enter the second week of this 1000-point event, the big story is Victoria Mboko.
The 18-year-old Canadian won the tournament on Saturday evening, when she upset Coco Gauff 6-1, 6-4 to get a place in the quarterfinals. Mboko won eight of the nine breakpoints (who saved four of the four while they converted four of the five) to cruise in just one hour and two minutes.
Mboko already has no. 85 in the world and has a golden chance to reach at least the semi -final with Lin Zhu or Jessica Bouzas Maleiro on the other side of the net on Monday. Mboko is expected to climb to the 55th ranking if it loses in the quarters.
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