Three Canadians win at Wimbledon Tuesday
Three Canadians advanced to the second round of Wimbledon in singles play on Tuesday.
On the women’s side Montreal’s Eugenie Bouchard began a bid to win her first major with a 7-5, 7-5 win over Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia. Bouchard battled back from being down 3-5 in the opening frame to win four consecutive games and the set. She is ranked 13th in the world and carries that seeding to the third Grand Slam of the year.
In Tuesday’s other women’s singles draw involving a Canadian Sharon Fichman of Toronto was ousted 6-1, 6-3 by Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky.
Canadian tennis was greeted by two impressive performances in men’s tennis on Tuesday.
Number eight seed Milos Raonic beat Matthew Ebden of Australia 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 in just over 90 minutes. The Canadian from Thornhill, Ontario will face American Jack Sock in the second round. Raonic has yet to reach the third round of Wimbledon in three attempts. The 23-year old will be in the mood for another breakthrough after reaching the quarterfinals of the French Open this year.
In an upset, Frank Dancevic of Niagara Falls, Ontario beat the hard serving 29th seeded giant (his height listed at 2.11 metres) Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4). His second round opponent will be Mihkail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan.
Dancevic is no stranger to making first round waves at Wimbledon. In 2008 the Canadian beat then number seven seed David Nalbandian.
Frank Dancevic in 2008, celebrating a first round upset at Wimbledon.
There was a pair of setbacks on Monday. Canadians Vasek Pospisil and Aleksandra Wozniak lost respectively in men’s and women’s singles. Pospisil lost his first round tilt to Robin Haase. The Dutch player won in four sets 7-6 (8-6), 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Wozniak fell to Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-2.
