TORONTO — Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic had the first upset of the Rogers Cup on Monday after downing No. 13 Kristina Mladenovic 6-2, 6-3.
The match took one hour 15 minutes to play at Aviva Centre.
Strycova, who is No. 26 in the world single rankings, broke her opponent six times and won 71 per cent of her first serve points.
Mladenovic smashed six aces but had five double faults and won just 16 per cent of second serve points.
The 24-year-old from France won the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy earlier this year. But she’s had a tough run of late following another upset loss to 17-year-old Canadian Bianca Andreescu at last week’s Citi Open in Washington.
Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., faces Timea Babos of Hungary in her first round match on Tuesday. Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., plays Croatia’s Donna Vekic on Tuesday afternoon while Montreal’s Francoise Abanda faces Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic on Monday night.
Monday’s afternoon session saw another upset as qualifer Varvara Lepchenko of the United States edged Latvian 12th seed Jelena Ostapenko 1-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(5).
Ostapenko, the 20-year-old who won this year’s French Open, was cruising through the first set before running into trouble with her serve. Lepchenko broke Ostapenko four times in the second set and once more in the third.
In other first round action on Monday, Daria Gavrilova of Australia beat Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena 6-3, 6-3, Russian Daria Kasatkina got past Roberta Vinci of Italy 7-6(3), 7-6(1) and Naomi Osaka of Japan advanced after Britain’s Heather Watson retired in the second set to take the match 6-1, 4-1.
Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens moved on after Ana Konjuh of Croatia retired after losing the first set 6-2 and Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova topped American Sachia Vickery 6-1, 7-6(3).