MONTREAL: The French flag flew proudly in Montreal on Monday as Gilles Simon and Gael Monfils advanced to the second round of the Rogers Cup men’s tournament.

Both Frenchmen enjoyed straight-sets victories while compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had his match delayed by rain in the final action of the day’s first round.

Monfils needed just over an hour to dispatch Fabio Fognini 6-3 6-1, denying the Italian a single break in the match. He broke Fognini’s serve four times in their first round match and finished with seven aces to Fognini’s three.

Monfils will next play Gilles Muller, who defeated Canada’s Philip Bester 6-2, 6-3. Ninth-seeded Simon extended his perfect record against Andreas Seppi to 5-0 with his 6-2, 6-4 victory. Simon broke Seppi three times and he too never lost serve.

Tsonga was leading his opening set against Croatia’s Borna Coric 2-1 when play was suspended.

Meanwhile, top-ranked Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Milos Raonic — who all had first-round byes — learned the identities of their second-round opponents.

Top seed Djokovic will start after the bye given to the leading eight seeds when he faces Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci, who worked for two and three-quarter hours to defeat Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas 7-6 (7-4), 4-6, 7-6 (7-4).

Murray will face Spaniard Tommy Robredo, a winner over compatriot Feliciano Lopez 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in a battle of 33-year-olds.

Nadal has a start against Ukraine’s Sergiy Stakhovsky, who beat Canadian wild card Filip Peliwo 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 while Raonic, seeded eighth, will test himself against Ivo Karlovic after the burly Croatian serving machine beat Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) in the first round.

PENNETTA overcomes Dabrowski

TORONTO: Italy’s Flavia Pennetta breezed past Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski 6-4, 6-1 on Monday at the WTA Rogers Cup, booking a second-round date on Tuesday with world number one Serena Williams.

Rain wiped out all other matches except a night start for Serena’s sister Venus, who lost to Germany’s Sabine Lisicki 6-0, 6-3, following a nine-hour wait.

For those who waited out the storm, the reward was brief as Lisicki needed just 66 minutes to dismiss the 14th seed.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2015

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