Azarenka tops Kvitova to progress at Rogers Cup

Petra Kvitova fell to former world number one Victoria Azarenka at the Rogers Cup on Wednesday, in the biggest shock of the tournament in Toronto.

Ominously, the second set began the same way as the world number 21 broke Kvitova twice to race 4-1 ahead and leave herself two games from the next round.

Azarenka will play Italian Sara Errani next.

Meanwhile, world number five Caroline Wozniacki suffered a second round upset to Swiss Belinda Bencic then hit back with strong criticism of the WTA. Late breaks in each set allowed Bencic to move past Wozniacki and into the third-round.

Number two seed Murray, who received a first-round bye, avoided the fate of so many other seeds, though he was extended by Spain’s Tommy Robredo before coming through for a 6-4 7-5 win.

“Just getting myself on track, taking responsibilities for your actions, learning from your mistakes, getting organized, which I hate, and now I’m really good at it”. I like it very much.

German qualifier Carina Witthoft is into the last 16, after seeing off Alison Riske 6-4 5-7 6-3, while fellow qualifiers Olga Govortsova, Heather Watson and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni bowed out.

Fourth seed Kei Nishikori also advanced with a 6-3 6-3 win over Spaniard Pablo Andujar.

“My serve was pretty good today”, said Halep.

“I knew I had to make her run a lot, open the court and finish the points when I could”.

Alize Cornet was too good for Dominika Cibulkova 6-3 6-2, while Sabine Lisicki held off Barbora Strycova 7-6 (7-3) 6-4.

Fifth-seed Ana Ivanovic, sixth-seed Agnieszka Radwanska and 16 seed Andrea Petkovic were all winners on Wednesday, while seventh-seed Lucie Safarova, eighth-seed Garbine Muguruza and 11 seed Ekaterina Makarova were all eliminated.