Federer advances at Rogers Cup, Sock to face Raonic
Roger Federer rolled to a 6-2, 6-0 victory over wild card Peter Polansky in the second round of the Rogers Cup, and Stan Wawrinka, Ernests Gulbis and Richard Gasquet also advanced in the U.S. Open tuneup on Tuesday.
Federer needed just 52 minutes to eliminate Canada's Polansky, who beat 2013 Wimbledon finalist Jerzy Janowicz on Monday night. The second-seeded Federer had a bye in the first round.
Federer said he's normally not heartless when facing an overmatched opponent, but knew he needed to block that out.
"You never know when it can shift," Federer said. "You feel a little bit and then you end up losing the match."
Third-seeded Wawrinka rallied for a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2) victory over Benoit Paire. No. 11 seed Gulbis moved into the second round with a 6-3, 6-4 win against Joao Sousa of Portugal. Gasquet beat local favorite Vasek Pospisil 7-5, 7-5.
"He has an extra motivation because it's being home," the 12th-seeded Gasquet said. "It's the same when I'm playing in France. But yeah he had big expectations on him, especially here in Toronto."
Pospisil was set to have an MRI on an abductor injury, which seized up at 5-all in the first set. It forced him to withdraw from the doubles competition.
No. 16 seed Fabio Fognini and 17th-seeded Tommy Robredo also won. Fognini defeated Russia's Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 6-3, and Robredo held on for a 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory over Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Jack Sock of the United States defeated Jurgen Melzer of Austria 6-1, 6-3 in the first round, setting up a match with big-serving Canadian Milos Raonic.
"I'm definitely excited for tomorrow," Sock said of facing Raonic. "The juices will be flowing. He got me in my home country last week, so I'm going to try to maybe get some revenge."
Raonic beat Sock, a Nebraska native, in straight sets at Wimbledon and then again last week at the Citi Open in Washington.
Andreas Seppi defeated Canadian qualifier Brayden Schnur 6-3, 6-3 after a rain delay of more than two hours. Seppi next faces Ivan Dodig, who upset 10th-seeded John Isner on Monday night.
In another Canadian loss, Frank Dancevic fell 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 to American Donald Young. Dancevic said Young did a good job of adapting to his game.
"He just started reading my serve in the second and third set," Dancevic said. "I couldn't get any more free points on my serve, my serve percentage dropped down a little bit and he just started playing better and better as the match went on."
Nick Kyrgios downed Santiago Giraldo 7-6 (3), 7-5 and next plays eighth-seeded Andy Murray. Gael Monfils beat Radek Stepanek 6-3, 7-5, and Yen-Hsun Lu edged Marcel Granollers 7-6 (6), 7-5.