The 3rd seed Garbine Muguruza who, after Serena Williams’ withdrawal, was anchoring the top half was actually forced to withdraw from the tournament herself by a gastrointestinal illness. The Spaniard was replaced by a lucky loser Varvara Lepchenko, who took advantage of being placed directly into the second round and got into the 3rd round herself, defeating Naomi Broady.
5th seed Simona Halep started off strong in Montreal with a straight set 6-2 6-3. Halep was strong both on serve and return, winning 77% of points after 1st serve, and 52% of points on Gavrilova’s 1st serve. Simona Halep’s opponent in Round of 16 will either face 14th seed Karolina Pliskova or Sara Errani.
Eugenie Bouchard and Lucie Safarova met in a match of two unseeded players, despite the fact that both players are former Top 10 players. Bouchard took the first set 6-3, and Safarova reciprocated with the same. The match came down to a final tiebreak, which Bouchard won 7-2 after 2 hours and 13 minutes of grinding. In the second round, Bouchard will be met with World No. 10 Dominika Cibulkova, who beat Mariana Duque-Marino in the opening round. The Canadian leads the head-to-head 2-1, winning both their meetings on hard courts.
