Tennis: Australians start strong at Canadian Open

Australian tennis had a brilliant start to the Canadian Open on Thursday morning (AEST), with all five of its ATP entrants picking up wins in round one.

Jordan Thompson’s victory was the most impressive, with the 30-year-old continuing his excellent 2024 season by upsetting top Brit Jack Draper.

Thompson was an underdog at tennis bookmakers heading into the match, but he struck five aces and 19 winners to just eight unforced errors to win 7-5, 6-2.

The Aussie has made the quarter-finals or better in his past two ATP events, but he is yet to make the quarter-finals of a Masters 1000 tournament.

Hijikata and Kokkinakis build on qualifying success

After making their way through qualifying earlier in the week in Montreal, Rinky Hijikata and Thanasi Kokkinakis kept their title hopes alive with wins over Taro Daniel and Gael Monfils, respectively.

Hijikata won 6-1, 7-5 and faces No.7 seed Grigor Dimitrov in the next round. He is a $5 underdog to overcome the Bulgarian, having lost to him in straight sets earlier this year.

Kokkinakis will also have a tough match next, with No.4 seed Hubert Hurkacz waiting in the round of 32. The Aussie beat Monfils 6-3, 6-3 to claim his 10th win of the season.

The other Australians to win on day two of the Canadian Open were Alexei Popyrin, who beat recent Olympic gold medallist Tomas Machac 6-3, 6-4, and James Duckworth, who prevailed over Marcos Giron 6-4, 6-1.

Duckworth was handed a lucky loser spot in the main draw after Cameron Norrie withdrew from the tournament.

Earlier in the week, the top-ranked Australian men’s tennis player, Alex de Minaur, also pulled out of the event.

De Minaur is still recovering from a hip injury he suffered at Wimbledon, which kept him out of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Sinner gets campaign underway on Friday

Top seed Jannik Sinner will get his campaign underway in Montreal early on Friday morning.

The Italian also missed the Olympics, due to tonsilitis, and is playing for the first time since losing in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon.

He is a $2.60 favourite to win this week, with the 22-year-old defending a Masters 1000 title for the first time in his career.

Sinner opens against Croatia’s Borna Coric, with bookmaker PlayUp putting him at $1.10 to advance.

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