Just three seeds went out on Wednesday which compared to what we’ve seen on the WTA tour throughout most of 2016, was a shock in itself. While not the highest seed to go out, the most eye-popping scoreline was in the third match on Central as Eugenie Bouchard beat the number 11 seed, Dominika Cibulkova, 6-2 6-0 (!). Genie was on it…

The highest seed to fall on day 3 of main draw action was the number eight seed, Carla Suárez Navarro. What a week this is turning out to be for the world number 121, Kristina Kucova. The 26-year-old is into the third round of Montreal after defeating Suárez Navarro, 3-6 6-4 6-4 in two hours and 27 minutes. She was happppy about it!

Kucova backed up wins over Christina McHale and Yanina Wickmayer, having come through as a qualifier. She has had some decent results this year including quarter-finals in Kuala Lumpur and Istanbul, and third round in Charleston as a qualifier. The win over Suárez Navarro though is the best of her career. Prior to Montreal, Kucova’s best win came in Bol earlier this year against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (#38).

Petraaaa! For the first time since the French Open, Petra Kvitova has won back-to-back matches on the tour as she enjoyed another convincing win, beating Andrea Petkovic, 6-2 6-4.

Kvitova plays Svetlana Kuznetsova in the third round on Thursday in the second match up on Banque Nationale… should be a good one! I want to say Petra but i’m always wary and Sveta’s having a superb year.

Agnieszka Radwanska strolled through the opening set of her second round match against Monica Niculescu but was forced to save three set points in a tight second set, eventually prevailing, 6-1 7-5 in the first match on Central.

Staking a solid claim as one of the worst matches of the year so far, Venus Williams defeated Barbora Strycova, 6-3 6-0. The scoreline was certainly kind to Venus who was laboured on serve and in her movement. However, she was the much steadier as Strycova had an absolute shocker! The stats tell us all you need to know about this match.

Strycova did manage one of the shots of the tournament so far in the first set!

Venus plays Madison Keys in a blockbuster third round match after Keys continued her dominance over Madison Brengle, sealing a fourth straight sets win in a row, prevailing, 6-4 6-3. I would have said Keys in that one but even more so with Venus struggling on serve.

Daria Kasatkina scored her fourth top 20 win, beating the number 13 seed, Sam Stosur, 7-6(1) 6-3. After watching the mess that was Venus-Beezus, this was a dreamy match! I love how Daria stayed to take lots of selfies with the fans afterwards.

It was an almighty struggle but Elina Svitolina managed to advance to the third round, beating off a gutsy challenge from the 19-year-old, Francoise Abanda, 7-6(2) 7-6(3). Abanda twice served for the second set at *5-4 and *6-5.

I questioned after Wimbledon whether Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova would be able to build on her run to the quarter-finals at SW19 but the early signs have been good! She saved a match point against Yulia Putintseva on Tuesday and recovered from a woeful first attempt at serving out her second round match on Wednesday against Christina McHale. Second time round, Pavs served it out for a 6-2 7-5 to continue her 100% record against the American.

Vinci won just four points on serve in the first set against Camila Giorgi… but held all five of her service games in the third set for a come-from-behind victory, 2-6 6-3 6-4 in two hours and two minutes and two seconds!

In the last match of the day, Angelique Kerber survived the onslaught of groundstrokes from Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, coming through in three sets, 6-3 4-6 6-3.

The day began with a withdrawal as Sara Errani was forced to pull out of Montreal with a neck injury. Karolina Pliskova advanced and will play Simona Halep in the third round.

 

And finally, Thursday’s schedule is AWESOME.

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