Popyrin into Canadian Open third round after Shelton upset

Australia’s Alexei Popyrin has continued his fine run at the Canadian Open in Montreal, upsetting No.11 seed Ben Shelton on Friday morning (AEST) to make the round of 16.

The 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory over the world No.14 is Popyrin’s second victory over a top-20 player in 2024.

Popyrin was strong behind his first serve, winning 85% of points and not facing a break point all match, and committed just eight unforced errors to Shelton’s 15.

The 24-year-old’s success comes off the back of a straight-sets win over Olympic gold medallist Tomas Machac in the opening round of the Masters 1000 event.

Other Australians did not fare so well, however.

Thompson, Duckworth and Hijikata all lose

Jordan Thompson, James Duckworth and Rinky Hijikata all lost their second-round matches, with some one-sided scorelines.

Hijikata had the most disappointing result, winning just one game against No.7 seed Grigor Dimitrov to crash out in less than an hour.

Thompson was not much better, falling 6-1, 6-1 to No.2 seed Alexander Zverev.

Tennis bookmakers had the match competitively priced, with Thompson in strong form having recently just broken into the top 20 for the first time in his career.

However, the 30-year-old was thoroughly outplayed by Zverev, winning only half of his first-serve points and just a third of his second serves.

Only Duckworth, a lucky loser this week in Canada, showed some resistance.

The world No.80 was up against three-time Grand Slam finalist Casper Ruud and gave the Norwegian a scare when he won a second-set tiebreak to force a deciding set.

Ruud prevailed 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3, but Duckworth will take confidence from his performance heading into the US Open later this month.

Sinner begins title defence well

Defending champion Jannik Sinner got his 2024 Canadian Open campaign under way on Friday morning, competing for the first time since Wimbledon.

The Italian saw off 2022 champion Borna Coric — who had to go through qualifying to make the main draw this year — in two straightforward sets, winning 6-2, 6-4.

With third seed Daniil Medvedev losing to Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 earlier in the day, Sinner is now an even stronger favourite to win the tournament.

The world No.1 is priced at a low $1.07 with online bookies to win his next match against Chilean Alejandro Tabilo and move into the quarter-finals.

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