Korda continues winning run, Rublev advances in Montreal

Sebastian Korda extended his winning run to seven matches on Saturday at the Omnium Banque National présenté par Rogers, where he overcame countryman Taylor Fritz 6-4, 7-6(4) to reach the third round in Montreal.

Korda is playing at a career-high No. 18 in the PIF ATP Rankings, having won his first ATP 500 crown in Washington last week. The 24-year-old saved three set points in the second set on serve at 4-5 against Fritz before he eventually prevailed in the tie-break to advance after one hour and 39 minutes.

Korda, who improved to 1-2 in his Lexus ATP Head2Head series with Fritz, then received a walkover from sixth-seeded Norwegian Casper Ruud to reach the quarter-finals. The American will next play Alexander Zverev or Holger Rune.

Fifth seed Andrey Rublev set a potential quarter-final meeting with World No. 1 Jannik Sinner when he dispatched American Brandon Nakashima 6-2, 6-2.

Rublev struck 22 winners and committed just five unforced errors in a high-quality performance to reach the last eight at the hard-court event. With his 64-minute win, Rublev completed the set of quarter-finals at all nine ATP Masters 1000 events.

The 26-year-old is up one spot to ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, trailing eighth-placed Stefanos Tsitsipas – who is out of Montreal - by 45 points. Rublev's best result at the Nitto ATP Finals was a semi-final showing in 2022.

? Dominating the return game! ??@AndreyRublev97 just smashed his highest Return #ShotQuality of the year! ?#ShotQuality is calculated in real-time by analysing each shot's speed, spin, depth, width, and the impact it has on the opponent#TennisInsights | @atptour |… pic.twitter.com/7VYuDWTwEt

In other early action, Pole Hubert Hurkacz clawed past Thanasi Kokkinakis 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(6) to reach the third round. Hurkacz hit 14 aces according to Infosys ATP Stats and converted on his third match point to triumph after two hours and 30 minutes. He will next meet Arthur Rinderknech after the Frenchman defeated Italian Flavio Cobolli 6-3, 6-2.

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