On Tuesday and Wednesday, every Canadian in the men’s singles at the National Bank Tennis Open fell in all sorts of ways. On Thursday, two of the tournament’s top seeds suffered the same fate.
Against all odds, Japan’s Kei Nishikori eliminated eighth-seeded Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas in two identical sets of 6-4, all in 1 hour 18 minutes on Rogers Court.
Less than an hour later on the central court, it was the turn of the Russian Daniil Medvedev, third seed, to be shown the exit door, in three sets of 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 against the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, ranked 42.e in the world, in 1 hour 55 minutes.
Before this match, Davidovich Fokina had never beaten Medvedev in four meetings, three of which were played on hard surfaces.
On Thursday, he found his form after being dominated in the second set, and after a toilet break of about 15 minutes after this second set, to escape with the match thanks to breaks in the first and fifth games of the deciding set.
Davidovich Fokina was waiting to find out on Thursday who his next opponent would be, between the Russian Karen Khachanov (16e) or the Italian Matteo Arnaldi.
Tsitsipas, for his part, had a poor start to the match, conceding breaks in the third and fifth games of the opening set. He recovered one in the eighth game, but was never able to get back on equal serve.
In the second set, Nishikori scored another break, in the third game, which he managed to protect until the end. The 34-year-old Japanese ended the duel on his second match point, when Tsitsipas sent a backhand slice into the bottom of the net.
Although it currently occupies 576e In terms of the ATP rankings, Nishikori is no stranger to the world.
In 2014, he lost in the final of the US Open against Marin Cilic, after having eliminated in turn the Canadian Milos Raonic (5e seed), the Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka (3e) and Serbian Novak Djokovic (tournament favorite). On March 2, 2015, he rose to fourth place in the ranking.
In the next round, Nishikori will face the Portuguese Nuno Borges who also took out a seed, in this case the Frenchman Ugo Humbert (12e) 3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4).
Another seeded player bowed out early on Thursday, American Tommy Paul (10e) losing in three sets of 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-1 to his compatriot Brandon Nakashima, who defeated Denis Shapovalov on Wednesday.
Russian Andrey Rublev (5e) put an end to the bleeding among the seeded players by defeating the Argentinian Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-6 (3), 6-2.
Rublev and Nakashima will meet in the third round.
In another match, Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (7e) made short work of Australian Rinky Hijikata, 6-1, 6-0 in 55 minutes.
Thursday marks the debut of the top eight seeds, including Italian Jannik Sinner, who will face Croatian Borna Coric on centre court in the middle of the afternoon.