MONTREAL: The ATP Mont­real Masters lost its top two seeds in the space of a few hours on Wednesday as Germany’s Alexan­der Zverev and Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime both exited the field.

Top seed and world number three Zverev, this year’s French Open champion and Wimbledon runner-up, was toppled by Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor, who rallied for a 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 6-4 second-round upset.

“I didn’t expect to play well,” Zverev said. “I also didn’t expect to play this bad, to be honest.”

Montreal native Auger-Aliassime had to withdraw before his scheduled night match after injuring his back during training on Monday.

“It was quite sudden. I was training here for two weeks and I had zero problems,” Auger-Aliassime said. “Just the timing is tough. I thought that day by day things would get better, but I tried to go on court today, I tried to warm up, and then I basically couldn’t serve really, so it was impossible for me to think about even competing.”

Joining fellow elites on the sidelines was fourth seed Daniil Medvedev who went out 6-3, 7-6(7/5) to Botic Van de Zand­schulp, another Dutch spoiler. Medvedev missed out on his 100th career win at the Masters level as he lost in the opener, weighed down by 40 unforced errors.

Tournament officials already were fuming at an event in which world number one Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic were both high-profile absentees even before the start.

“I’m not going to lie, we were hoping that Felix was going to win at least a few matches,” tournament director Valerie Tetreault said. “He’s definitely the player everybody was talking about and people wanted to know when he was going to play.”

Zverev was competing for the first time since his Wimbledon final loss to Sinner and began to fade in the second set against world number 69 Griekspoor.

“This was probably the worst match of the season,” Zverev said.

Fifth-seeded defending champion Ben Shelton rallied from 4-1 down in his second set to overhaul US compatriot Jenson Brooksby 6-3, 7-5, winning six of the last seven games for his 28th victory of the season.

Shelton took 96 minutes to go through to the third round. He’s 15-3 against countrymen since the start of 2025.

Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas fell 7-6(7/3), 7-5 to Brazilian Joao Fonseca, 19, in the second round.

Fonseca, who fired nine aces among his 31 winners, next plays ninth seed Casper Ruud.

RYBAKINA, PEGULA AND GAUFF ADVANCE

Meanwhile, top seeds lived up to their billings in the women’s event in Toronto on Wednesday as second seed Elena Rybakina, third seed Jessica Pegula and fourth-seeded Coco Gauff advanced to the third round.

Australian Open champion Rybakina began her hardcourt run ahead of the US Open by outlasting Australian Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 after two hours and 33 minutes. Rybakina began the match by hitting six consecutive winners and finished with 58 winners, 15 of them acers, and 58 unforced errors, 16 of them double faults.

Rybakina next face 28th-seeded American Ann Li, who eliminated Canadian wildcard Kayla Cross 7-6(7/2), 6-3.

Pegula, who lost Monday in a rain-hit Washington final, was also extended to three sets before advancing with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 triumph over Poland’s Magdalena Frech in two hours and three minutes.

Next up for Pegula is a third-round match against Uzbekistan’s Kamilla Rakhimova, who ousted when Czech Katerina Siniakova retired trailing 6-7(1/7), 6-0, 5-2.

Another American, two-time Grand Slam winner Gauff, cruised into the third round by dispatching compatriot Kayla Day 6-2, 7-5.

World number five Mirra Andreeva also advanced in straight sets, the Russian teen cruising past Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 6-2.

Published in Dawn, August 7th, 2026