CANADIAN OPEN: SERENA IN TEARFUL FAREWELL TO TORONTO AS DRAPPER, EVANS, NORRIE ADVANCE TO THIRD ROUND

Serena Williams, who announced earlier she will retire from tennis after the US Open in August was knocked at the Canadian Open by World N.12 Belinda Bencic in straight sets in Toronto.

The 23 time grand slam champion, Williams, obviously struggled as she could not withstand the superior play of Bencic going down 6-2 6-4 in her final match at the Canadian Open. The Swiss defeat of the 40 year-old American tennis star in the second round was emotional as Williams wept during the post-match interview.

Williams who bowed to the World No.12 will now beam her attention to the Cincinnati Masters next week before the start of the US Open on August 29, where she will bid farewell to the sports that brought her to fame.

But despite the defeat she was appreciative of her global fans, especially the Canadian fans, which she was giving a rousing farewell by the crowd in Toronto.

In an on-court interview the former World No. 1, Serena, said she wished she could have played better against Belinda but admitted Belinda was a better player today. On her farewell to Toronto,

“It was a lot of emotion because obviously I love playing here,” Serena Willaims said.

Williams added, “It’ been a pretty interesting 24 hours. I’m terrible at goodbyes, but goodbye, Toronto!”

Meanwhile, in men’s singles matches Jack Draper, 20, outshined Greek’s Stefanos Tsitsipas 7-5 7-6 (7-4) to claim his first victory over a top 10 player. British Dan Evans defeated World No.8 Andrey Rublev 6-4 6-4 in Montreal. Dutchman Botic van de Zandschulp fell to the superior power of British’s No.1 Cameron Norrie 6-1 6-2. Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios, lost a first –set- tie –break but made a comeback to defeat the Australian who won last week the ATP Tour title at Citi Open in Washington.