Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ontario and Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, Quebec are each in the third round of the 2019 Rogers Cup.They are the only Canadians left in the women’s singles and men’s singles draws respectively.
In an interesting twist, Andreescu and Auger-Aliassime have both beaten Canadians to advance to Thursday action. On Monday, Auger-Aliassime beat Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, British Columbia 6-2, 6-7, 7-6 in the first round, and then beat 17th ranked Milos Raonic (the 2013 Rogers Cup finalist) of Thornhill, Ontario, 6-3, 3-6. Raonic pulled out because of a back ailment during the match on Wednesday. Andreescu, meanwhile beat Eugenie Bouchard of Montreal, Quebec 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 in the first round on Tuesday.
Andreescu, who is competing in her first tournament since beating Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the French Open, beat Daria Kasatkina of Russia 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 in the second round in Toronto on Wednesday. Her next opponent will be the fifth ranked Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands. Bertens’s greatest accomplishment was reaching the semifinals of the French Open in 2016.
Auger-Aliassime is one of three Canadian men to have won a singles match in the men’s draw at the 2019 Rogers Cup in Montreal. Raonic won his first round match on Monday in beating Lucas Pouille of France 6-4, 6-4. While Denis Shapovalov of Toronto, Ontario won his first round match on Monday in beating Pierre-Hugues Herbert of France 6-3, 7-5 before losing to Dominic Thiem of Austria 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
Auger-Aliassime’s third round opponent on Thursday will be the sixth seed, Karen Khachanov of Russia. This will be the first time that Auger-Aliassime will have played Khachanov and the first time Andreescu will have played Bertens.
