American Danielle Collins worked just 72 minutes to knock out Ukrainian Elina Svitolina in straight sets 6-2, 6-2 on Tuesday at the Women’s National Bank Open.
After qualifying in Montreal, after notably beating Quebecer Eugenie Bouchard, Collins broke her rival twice to take the first round.
Svitolina, who was coming back from quarter-final appearances in Washington and semi-finals at Wimbledon, was then broken on her second serve game in the second set and she couldn’t recover.
Collins will have a tough job if she is to advance to the third round of the tournament, as she now has eighth-seeded Greece’s Maria Sakkari in her path.
Sakkari has just lost in the final of the Washington tournament, during a course during which she showed the exit door to Quebecer Leylah Fernandez.
Fernandez will also be in action against the American Peyton Stearns on the center court of the IGA stadium later on Tuesday. Ontario’s Bianca Andreescu will also make her debut by taking on former tournament champion Camila Giorgi.
In a match interrupted Monday night due to rain, 10th seed Daria Kasatkina defeated Belgium’s Elise Mertens 6-4, 6-2.
For her part, 15th seed Liudmila Samsonova came from behind to overthrow Czech Katerina Siniakova 4-6, 6-2 6-3.
Two games scheduled for Tuesday were canceled and then pushed back due to a withdrawal. Czech Linda Noskova forfeited her duel against American Bernarda Pera while Spaniard Paula Badosa did the same against Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia.
Pera will instead cross swords with the Kazakh Yulia Putintseva while Haddad Maia will face the Polish Magdalena Frech.
