Daniel Nestor drew a line under his Rogers Cup career on Wednesday night, but the 45-year-old remains hopeful that wild cards may briefly extend his ATP World Tour farewell.

The 45-year-old, who plans to retire from professional tennis in September, was competing at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament for the 30th straight year and fought hard with fellow Canadian Vasek Pospisil in Toronto. Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Marc Lopez triumphed 6-7(6), 6-2, 10-6 over one hour and 36 minutes.

Nestor and Pospisil saved one set point at 5/6 in the first set tie-break, but lost the first four games of the second set. They battled back from a 1/5 deficit to 6/7 in the Match tie-break, but couldn’t deny the Spaniards, who next play fourth seeds Mike Bryan and Jack Sock in the second round.

“I was planning on playing the next two [Western & Southern Open and the US Open],” admitted Nestor. “It depends on wild cards and all that. It’s out of my control, but I would like to play Davis Cup as my last match… That was the plan all along.”

Elsewhere, Grigor Dimitrov and David Goffin, who both contested the championship match at last year’s Nitto ATP Finals, knocked out all-French duo Jeremy Chardy and Lucas Pouille 7-6(5), 6-4 for a second-round meeting against top seeds Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic.

Pablo Carreno Busta and Joao Sousa will face second seeds Henri Kontinen and John Peers after coming through a 4-6, 6-2, 10-4 victory over Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Fernando Verdasco in 77 minutes.

Ben McLachlan and Matwe Middelkoop struck seven aces to edge past Borna Coric and Robin Haase 5-7, 6-3, 10-7 in 75 minutes. They will now prepare to meet seventh seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau in the second round.

#NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov continued to back up his Rogers Cup semi-final run of a year ago (l. to Zverev) on Wednesday with a 6-3, 7-5 upset of 14^th seed Fabio Fognini of Italy. Fognini was coming off his first hard-court title at Los Cabos on Saturday (d. Del Potro).

“I think my game is at a very high level right now. You know, last week, even though I lost to Kei, it was a really good match. And I was telling everyone, I’m playing well in practice. I’m feeling really good,” Shapovalov said. “I think having my mom on the side has really helped me the last couple weeks. I’ve really picked up my game. We’ve really worked on a couple of aspects that have helped me in the last couple of weeks.”

Shapovalov will next face Dutchman Robin Haase, who beat former World No. 8 Mikhail Youzhny in a rain-interrupted encounter 7-5, 6-2. Third-seeded Argentine Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 finalist, withdrew ahead of his second-round match against Haase due to left wrist pain.

Del Potro, who underwent three left wrist surgeries in 2014 and 2015, was replaced by lucky loser Youzhny, who recently announced he will retire from professional tennis after the St. Petersburg Open in September.

Shapovalov is currently in good position to make a return trip to the Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held 6-10 November in Milan. The left-hander is in fourth place in the ATP Race To Milan. The top seven players in the Race will qualify automatically, while the eighth spot will be reserved for the winner of an all-Italian qualifier tournament to be held just prior to the prestigious 21-and-under event.

Alexander Zverev cast aside rain delays to get his title defence off on the right foot with a routine victory over American qualifier Bradley Klahn. Coming off the successful defence of his Citi Open title in Washington, D.C. the German No. 2 seed posted his sixth straight match win with an efficient 6-4, 6-4 victory over Klahn, No. 116 in the ATP Rankings.

Such was Zverev’s dominance on serve he dropped just one point on his first serve in the second set. It came when he had three match points on serve, but he quickly closed it out on his second chance to book a third-round meeting with Russian qualifier Daniil Medvedev, who held off #NextGenATP Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(7) in a match that finished just after midnight on Thursday morning.

“It’s not easy coming from Washington with a lot of heat, especially playing here at night, the court is a lot quicker,” Zverev said. “He played very well, very aggressive, serving I thought really well. I was just happy to break him once in each set.”

Zverev leads his FedEx ATP Head2Head series with Medvedev 3-0, including a three-setter earlier this year in Miami. Auger-Aliassime, who turned 18 on Wednesday, was trying to become the youngest player to post two wins at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event since Rafael Nadal at 2004 Miami and the youngest to do so at the Rogers Cup since Mats Wilander in 1982.

Reflecting on his tough loss, Augur-Aliassime admitted, “It was special from beginning to end. [At the end] maybe I didn’t put as much first serve, to keep holding my serve, to keep my break alive. But I think he stayed very solid. Credit is to him. In the tie-break, I was feeling good… It slipped away out of my hands.”

Grigor Dimitrov has not had it easy of late, winning just two of his past eight matches heading into this year’s Rogers Cup in Toronto. It had been a torrid stretch for the Bulgarian, having started the season at No. 3 in the ATP Rankings.

But after toughing out a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6(5) second-round victory against Fernando Verdasco, a player who had beaten him twice already this year, Dimitrov has cause for optimism. The No. 5 seed will attempt to win back-to-back matches for the first time since Roland-Garros when he meets #NextGenATP American Frances Tiafoe for a place in the Rogers Cup quarter-finals on Thursday.

View FedEx ATP Head2Head for the Rogers Cup & vote for who you think will win! 
Nadal vs Wawrinka | Djokovic vs Tsitsipas | Dimitrov vs Tiafoe

For Dimitrov, it would be a much-needed injection of confidence as he looks to turn around his season and qualify for the Nitto ATP Finals again, where he is the defending champion.

“Sometimes one, two, three matches, it can really turn it around for you again,” Dimitrov said on the eve of his Rogers Cup campaign. “If you stay compact, stay smart and do the right things you just never know when the tables might turn for you.”

That hard-fought triumph over Verdasco could yet prove to be his turning point. But against the 20-year-old Tiafoe, Dimitrov faces an opponent brimming with confidence and shooting for his place in a maiden ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final. The pair has never met.

Tiafoe followed up his opening-round victory over Marco Cecchinato with an impressive win over home hopeful and former World No. 3 Milos Raonic in the second round on Wednesday. 

In another first-time FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting, four-time champion Novak Djokovic will square off against #NextGenATP Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas for a place in the quarter-finals. While not at his best in a straight-sets victory over Canadian wild card Peter Polansky on Wednesday, Djokovic is riding a surge in confidence thanks to his fourth Wimbledon crown.

In one of the most contested rivalries on the ATP World Tour this season, Tsitsipas posted his second win on Wednesday from five FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings with No. 7 seed Dominic Thiem in 2018. The 19-year-old is through to the third round at a Masters 1000 event for the first time.

“Playing Novak, I practised almost like a thousand times with him,” Tsitsipas said. “It’s going to be an interesting match. Obviously he’s a favourite, I’m pretty sure about it. Everybody is expecting him to win. So I’ll just play my game, be patient. There are going to be few opportunities in the match. I just need to use my chances as correct as possible and not hurry at all.”

In arguably the highest-profile match of the third round, top seed and three-time champion Rafael Nadal will take on former World No. 3 Stan Wawrinka for a place in the quarter-finals. The most recent outing between the pair was played out in last year’s Roland Garros final, where Nadal extended his FedEx ATP Head2Head record against the Swiss to 16-3.

Wawrinka played just two matches on grass after that final before calling time on his 2017 season due to injury. Two successful knee surgeries later he is beginning to rediscover his form.

On Wednesday, he saved four match points against Martin Fucsovics to back up his opening-round triumph over Nick Kyrgios. Nadal dropped just five games in his first match since Wimbledon to defeat Frenchman Benoit Paire.

“This kind of meeting is always a very tough opponent,” Nadal said. “And it’s a match that we played two times in a Grand Slam final. So, yeah, it’s going to be an important and tough match hopefully for both of us.”

Stefanos Tsitsipas might find his way into the Top 20 of the ATP Rankings in the very near future if he keeps this up. Greece’s #NextGenATP star won his ninth match out of 11 on Wednesday, upsetting seventh seed Dominic Thiem 6-3, 7-6(6) at the Rogers Cup in Toronto to reach his first third round at an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament.

The 19-year-old Tsitsipas, No. 27 in the ATP Rankings, picked up his fourth Top 10 win (4-9) and his second against Thiem, who still leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 3-2.

The Austrian beat Tsitsipas in four sets at Roland Garros en route to his maiden Grand Slam final in June. But on the hard courts in Canada, Tsitsipas was dialled in, winning 95 per cent of his first-serve points (38/40) and never facing a break point.

“I felt very confident from the beginning of the match. I felt like I was stronger than him today… and confidence played an important role in my game today. I felt my serve was working really well. And I managed to win lots of easy points on my serve and put pressure on him, knowing that he cannot find solutions while I was serving on my service games,” Tsitsipas said.

“It was a fantastic match from the beginning till the end. And I’m really looking forward to my next match because I want to prove that I can play even better than that.”

Thiem, for his part, was broken only once, but Tsitsipas converted his third match point in the second set tie-break to advance. “It was a tough match. Obviously he’s in form… For an opponent like Stefanos, who is playing great right now, who had a great run last week, also already one good win here, it was just not good enough,” Thiem said.

Tsitsipas, who reached the fourth round at Wimbledon (l. to Isner), will next meet ninth seed and four-time champion Novak Djokovic, who beat home favourite Peter Polansky of Canada 6-3, 6-4 earlier Wednesday.

#NextGenATP Canadian Denis Shapovalov continued to back up his Rogers Cup semi-final run of a year ago (l. to Zverev) with a 6-3, 7-5 upset of 14^th seed Fabio Fognini of Italy. Fognini was coming off his first hard-court title at Los Cabos on Saturday (d. Del Potro).

“I think my game is at a very high level right now. You know, last week, even though I lost to Kei, it was a really good match. And I was telling everyone, I’m playing well in practice. I’m feeling really good,” Shapovalov said. “And I think having my mom on the side has really helped me the last couple weeks. I’ve really picked up my game. We’ve really worked on a couple of aspects that have helped me in the last couple of weeks.”

Both Tsitsipas and Shapovalov are in good position to reach the Next Gen ATP Finals, to be held 6-10 November in Milan. Tsitsipas is in second place in the ATP Race To Milan; Shapovalov fourth. The top seven players in the Race will qualify automatically, while the eighth spot will be reserved for the winner of an all-Italian qualifier tournament to be held just prior to the prestigious 21-and-under event.

Shapovalov will next face Dutchman Robin Haase, who beat former World No. 8 Mikhail Youzhny in a rain-interrupted encounter 7-5, 6-2.

Third-seeded Argentine Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 finalist, withdrew ahead of his second-round match against Haase due to left wrist pain. Del Potro, who underwent three left wrist surgeries in 2014 and 2015, was replaced by lucky loser Youzhny. who recently announced he will retire from professional tennis at the St. Petersburg Open in September.

Rafa in red? Just as good as Rafa in every colour. The No. 1 player in the ATP Rankings was in complete control on Wednesday night during his North American hard-court summer season debut, beating Frenchman Benoit Paire 6-2, 6-3 at the Rogers Cup in Toronto.

The Spaniard broke six times, and although he struggled on serve in the second set, losing his serve three times, the outcome was never in doubt as Nadal improved to 4-0 against Paire in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. Even the new 25-second shot clock didn’t seem to bother Nadal, who was playing with the innovation for the first time.

“I think I played a solid match. It’s true that with myself in the second set I had some troubles, but my return worked well. And it was not about the serve. It was more about the mistakes from the baseline, in my opinion,” Nadal said.

“Here it’s important to be on the rhythm. It’s important to play matches. It’s not about tricks. It’s about playing well. These tournaments are so hard. Since the beginning you play against the Top 50 players. So it’s a big test from the real first round, no?… You need to be ready. And today I found a way to be through, and let’s try again tomorrow.”

The Spaniard feasted on Paire’s second serve, winning 80 per cent of the points (28/35) and put on a show for the fans on Centre Court, who hadn’t seen him in Toronto since 2010 and haven’t seen him hoist a trophy there since 2008. (Nadal has won three Rogers Cup titles – 2005, 2008 and 2013 – but his 2005 and 2013 titles came when the event was played at Montreal).

Nadal would pound Paire’s backhand with heavy forehand after heavy forehand, only to eventually drop shot short to the other side. During one exchange, at 4-2 in the first set, Paire could only throw his racquet as he watched Nadal’s volley float past him.

The 32-time ATP World Tour Masters 1000 champion was playing for the first time since he fell in the Wimbledon semi-finals to eventual champion Novak Djokovic. The Spaniard, who improved to 36-3 on the year, is going for his fifth title of the season. He nearly swept the European clay-court swing, winning his 11^th Monte-Carlo, Barcelona and Roland Garros titles.

But this week’s Masters 1000 tournament in Canada is only his second hard-court event of the season. Nadal fell in the quarter-finals at the Australian Open (ret. vs. Cilic).

Nadal will next face Swiss Stan Wawrinka, who saved four match points to outlast Marton Fucsovics of Hungary 1-6, 7-6(2), 7-6(10). Wawrinka erased all of the match points in the final-set tie-break, at 5/6, 6/7, 8/9 and 9/10 before converting his second match point to finish the 22-point tie-break.

Nadal leads their FedEx ATP Head2Head series 16-3. The two have met in one Masters 1000 final (2013 Madrid) and two Grand Slam finals, including their most recent meeting at the 2017 Roland Garros.

Flashback: Nadal Beats Wawrinka For Historic 10th Title In Paris