Three Canadians advanced to the second round of the 2020 Western & Southern Open from New York City, New York on Saturday. Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ontario, Denis Shapovalov of Toronto, Ontario, and Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, Quebec all won their opening round matches.
Shapovalov defeated 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-3, 6-3. He had nine aces, and won 60% of his second serve points. Shapovalov will now face Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany in the second round.
Raonic defeated Sam Querrey of the United States 6-4, 6-4. This was the eighth time that Raonic has faced Querrey in his career, and Raonic has the 5-3 advantage. The most notable matchup they have ever had was the quarterfinals of Wimbledon in 2016, where Raonic won 6-4, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4. Raonic will now face Daniel Evans of Great Britain in the second round.
Auger-Aliassime beat Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia 6-4, 6-1. After Bashilashvili broke Auger-Aliassime in the first game of the first set, Auger-Aliassime bounced back quite nicely as he won 12 of the next 16 games. Auger-Aliassime will now face Tennys Sandgren of the United States in the second round. One area of concern for Auger-Aliassime at this time appears to be his serve. He had too many double faults in the win, including three in his first service game.
