Sorana Cirstea and Belinda Bencic, after early successes with their new coaches Thomas Johansson and Dmitry Tursunov, respectively, both are no longer working with those coaches.
Stefanos Tsitsipas has decided to reunite with Mark Philippoussis as his full-time coach, relieving his father Apostoulos from having to do full-time travel duties.
In Montreal at Omnium Banque Nationale 43 year old Venus Williams, a wildcard ranked 527, fought off eight match points in her first round duel with Madison Keys before finally falling 62 75. Keys has reached the quarterfinals of her last three tournaments. Williams has a match record of 2-5 in 2023.
Jennifer Brady scored a sensational 76 06 76 win vs. Jelena Ostapenko, overcoming a 0-3 deficit in the third and two match points. The 2020 US Open finalist, who returned to action last week at Mubadala Citi Open after an almost two-year hiatus because of a knee injury, will face Elena Rybakina next.
“I have no idea how I won that match,” Brady said after the big win. “On the court I don’t feel like I’m moving as good as I want to, I’m not hitting the ball as deep or heavy as I want to. I’m not playing good tennis, I’m just playing tennis. That’s how I feel on court… I wish I could have played a better match, but who cares. People only look at the result, so I’m happy that I somehow won this match.”
At National Bank Open Presented by Rogers, Milos Raonic pounded 37 aces to beat ATP no. 10 Frances Tiafoe 67 76 63. Raonic’s serve record was 38 vs. Radek Stepanek in Memphis in 2011.
Gael Monfils, 36 and ranked 257, showed he still has plenty of fuel in his tank by beating Christopher Eubanks 76 67 61. Tennsy Sandgren tweeted later after watching the highlights of the match that it gave him “goosebumps.”
Taro Daniel must have Adrian Mannarino’s number because the Japanese 30 year old beat the 35 year old champion of Newport 75 64, the third time in three matches that’s he’s mastered the French lefthander.
Montreal · National Bank Open · Omnium Banque Nationale · Toronto
