TORONTO — Canadian Steven Diez was able to overcome nerves and humidity on Monday and advance to the second round of the Rogers Cup men's tennis tournament.
Diez, who was born in Toronto and resides in Spain, downed Britain's Kyle Edmund 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 in first round action at Aviva Centre.
The 25-year-old Diez started to get bad headaches in the third set because of sweating and had to get the trainer to come out and assist him. He shrugged it off after the match, however, and said he was OK.
"I knew I played pretty well, first set I lost but I knew it was still possible," Diez said. "The first set was just a few mistakes but it was just one break. And I knew that if I kept on going, everything was possible.
"I still don't have a lot of words to describe what just happened."
Peter Polansky, of Thornhill, Ont., also advanced following a 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory over American qualifier Tim Smyczek.
Polansky was broken in the first game of the first set but rebounded nicely in the following two sets.
"I kept fighting and I was feeling really good out there and I think he kind of lost his gas in the third set," Polansky said. "It was pretty hot out there and especially with him coming from his match yesterday in qualifying."
The humidex in Toronto peaked at 37 C for Diez's match while it rose to 39 C for Polansky's game.
Polansky says that he's been playing some good tennis over his last 20 matches.
"I'm just trying to roll with it," Polansky said. "I've played a lot of matches in the last month of two, I've played almost 20-25 singles matches and a handful of doubles matches so I've been feeling confident."
Wimbledon junior champion Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., and Frank Dancevic of Niagara Falls, Ont., were set to play on centre court Monday night.
The 17-year-old Shapovalov is the youngest player in the tournament and was scheduled to face world No. 19 Nick Kyrgios. Dancevic was scheduled against American Sam Querrey.
Fourth-seeded Milos Raonic of Thornhill has a bye in the first round.
American No. 9 seed John Isner downed Dudi Sela of Israel 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 while Australia's Bernard Tomic beat Columbia's Alejandro Gonzalez 6-4, 7-6 (1) in afternoon draws.
In other early matches, Gilles Muller of Luxembourg defeated Russia's Dmitry Tursunov 7-6 (5), 6-1, South Africa's Kevin Anderson edged Serbia's Viktor Troicki 7-6 (4), 6-3 and Croatia's Borna Coric beat countryman Ivan Dodig 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.
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