Milos Raonic advanced to the round of 16 at the Western & Southern Open before fellow Canadians Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov were eliminated on Monday.
Raonic, from Thornhill, Ont., beat Great Britain's Daniel Evans 6-3, 7-5 in a second-round match at the opening tournament in the ATP Tour's restart.
The 15th-seeded Auger-Aliassime lost 6-7 (4), 6-2, 7-6 (5) to American wild-card entrant Tennys Sandgren, while the 12th-seeded Shapovalov fell 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-4 to German Jan-Lennard Struff.
Raonic, ranked 30th, rode his big serve to victory against the world No. 28.
The Canadian never faced a break point and won 89 per cent of his points on his first serve.
Raonic had 23 aces, 18 more than Evans.
Raonic will next face the winner of a match between No. 5 seed Alexander Zverev of Germany and British wild-card entrant Andy Murray.
Montreal's Auger-Aliassime led 5-4 with serve in the third set before losing all four points in the ensuing game to put the match back on even terms.
In the tiebreak, Auger-Aliassime led 5-4 with serve before double-faulting and then making an unforced error. The 55th-ranked Sandgren then won on serve.
Sandgren, 29, was emotional throughout the match, often yelling at himself. It was in stark contrast to the 20-year-old Auger-Aliassime, who was far quieter.
It was a sloppy match, with Auger-Aliassime making 58 unforced errors, 13 more than Sandgren. The Canadian also double-faulted 15 times.
Auger-Aliassime called it 鈥渁 really bad day鈥� in terms of his level.
鈥淭oday was tough to say the least, starting from my serve but then going on to other things that weren't going well in my game,鈥� he said.
Shapovalov, from Richmond Hill, Ont., lost his fourth match in a row against the 34th-ranked Struff.
The German broke Shapovalov in the final game of the match.
Normally held in Cincinnati, the Western & Southern Open is being played at the same site as the U.S. Open this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. No fans are in the facility.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 24, 2020.
