Felix Auger-Aliassime and Leylah Annie Fernandez had successful outings Wednesday in Mexico. Fellow Canadian Milos Raonic did not.
The 20-year-old Aliassime defeated another 20-year-old, American Sebastian Korda 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the quarter-finals at the Mexican Open.
The Montrealer, seeded seventh in Acapulco, needed one hour 38 minutes to top his 92nd-ranked opponent at the ATP-500 level tournament.
Auger-Aliassime will face either No. 1 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece or American John Isner next.
The fourth-seeded Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., didn’t make it out of the second round, getting upset by his 71st-ranked Dominik Koepfer of Germany.
The German took the match in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2 in one hour 12 minutes.
Meanwhile, Fernandez toppled Slovakia’s Kristina Kulkova in the round of 16 at the Monterrey Open.
The 18-year-old Fernandez, of Laval, Que., downed Kulkova 6-1, 6-4 in one hour seven minutes to reach the quarters.
Next up for Fernandez at the ATP 250 tournament is Slovakian Viktoria Kuzmova.
Earlier, Canada’s Denis Shapovalov advanced to the quarter-finals of the Dubai Tennis Championships after defeating Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz 6-4, 6-3.
The third-seeded Shapovalov, from Richmond Hill, Ont., won for the first time in three career matches versus the 13th-seeded Hurkacz.
Shapovalov won 90 per cent of points (28-of-31) when he got his first serve in and saved the only break point he faced in the third-round match of the ATP Tour 500 event.
“For sure playing some really good tennis,” Shapovalov said. “Obviously, I’ve struggled against Hubert in the past. He’s such a great player, he’s got great weapons and he’s really tough to play against. I’m really happy to get my first win against him.”
The Canadian, who was playing his 200th tour-level match, will face world No. 53 Jeremy Chardy in the quarter-finals after the Frenchman upset No. 8 seed Karen Khachanov of Russia 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4.
Shapovalov has a 2-0 career record versus Chardy.
Meanwhile, Andrey Rublev eased into the quarter-finals and qualifier Lloyd Harris continued his run of upsets.
The second-seeded Rublev needed barely an hour to win 6-3, 6-1 versus Taylor Fritz. He next faces a rematch versus Marton Fucsovics, the player he beat in the Rotterdam final earlier this month.
Fucsovics won 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 against 11th-seeded Dusan Lajovic. The Hungarian has gone to three sets in all three matches in Dubai this week.
Harris won 7-6 (5), 6-4 versus 14th-seeded Filip Krajinovic to follow his upset win over top-seeded Dominic Thiem on Wednesday. The South African qualifier was down 4-2 in the tiebreaker before winning five of the following six points, and broke Krajinovic at 3-3 in the second.
Harris will face Kei Nishikori, who beat Aljaz Bedene 6-4, 6-4. Aslan Karatsev continued his strong start to 2021 by beating Lorenzo Sonego 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The Russian was a surprise Australian Open semifinalist as a qualifier last month and will now face another Italian, Jannik Sinner. Sinner upset fourth-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
