Bester/Shamasdin Beat Djokovic/Zimonjic In Toronto

World No. 1 Novak Djokovic partnered with fellow Serbian Nenad Zimonjic in doubles at the Rogers Cup. The duo began their bid on Tuesday in Toronto, but fell to home favourites Philip Bester and Adil Shamasdin. The Canadians won 7-5, 4-6, 10-2.

”It’s an exciting match-up, kind of like a popcorn match,” said Bester. “At the end of the day, I was also excited to go out there with Adil and I knew that we had enough skill and enough game to beat these guys. That’s what happened today, so I couldn’t be happier.”

“I thought we served really smart and tried to keep it away from their strengths,” added Shamasdin. “Going into a match like this we are focused on what we are doing on our end, and we are not really kind of worried about what they’re going to do.”

Bester/Shamasdin saved seven of the eight break points they faced to beat Djokovic/Zimonjic in 82 minutes and reach the second round. They next face seventh seeds Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram.

Third seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo will open their campaign in Toronto against Croat tandem Marin Cilic and Marin Draganja, who fired six aces and saved the one break point they faced to beat Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3, 6-4. 

John Isner and NextGen star Alexander Zverev defeated Robert Lindstedt and Sam Querrey 7-6(4), 6-3 to set a second-round meeting with fifth seeds Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau. Nick Kyrgios and Jack Sock beat Gilles Muller and Benoit Paire 6-4, 6-2 in 53 minutes to set a second-round clash with sixth seeds Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil.

Australian-Serbian duo Bernard Tomic and Viktor Troicki had few difficulties seeing off the Canadian wild card pairing of Felix Auger Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov. Tomic and Troicki won 89 per cent of first-serve points and were never broken. They next meet No. 2 seed Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares.