Sixth-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia shrugged off a first-set loss to defeat No. 28 Lorenzo Sonego of Italy 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in third-round action on Friday at the National Bank Open in Toronto.
Rublev had six aces among 29 winners in the victory.
“The main thing today, I was able to be mentally really good,” Rublev told the Tennis Channel. “After the first set, I didn’t (go) down. I was, like, OK, let’s keep fighting, keep being positive … then I was able to create more things, like to go to the net.”
Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina pulled off an upset as the No. 20 seed knocked out 12th-seeded Jakub Mensik of Czechia 6-2, 6-4. The Spaniard converted all four of his break points as he won 49.1 percent of his returns (28 of 57) compared to Mensik’s 29.2 percent (14 of 48). His reward is a fourth-round match versus Rublev.
Czechia’s Jiri Lehecka earned the day’s other upset as the No. 19 seed rallied to take down No. 15 Arthur Fils of France by a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 count. Lehecka stacked up 12 aces to Fils’ three on the hard court.
No. 7 Frances Tiafoe beat Australia’s Aleksandar Vukic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to advance to a fourth-round match with another Aussie, ninth-seeded Alex de Minaur, on Sunday. No. 13 Flavio Cobolli of Italy maxed out his serve at 135 mph during his 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Hungary’s Fabian Maroszan.
–Field Level Media
