Canada's Stakusic bows out of NBO with first-round loss to Cristian
The 142nd-ranked Stakusic, in her fourth appearance at the NBO, was making her main draw debut in Montreal after bowing out in the second round of last year's tournament, held in Toronto.
The 20-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., got off to a strong start, breaking Cristian in the Romanian's very first service game to go up 2-0 in the opening set. The Canadian broke her opponent again in the eighth game to take the opening set 6-2.
Cristian wasted little time, however, getting on the board in the second set, breaking Stakusic at love in the opening game. The Romanian, currently ranked a career-high 49th in the WTA rankings, would go on to break her opponent twice more as she evened the match at a set apiece.
The third set played out almost identically to that of the second, with Cristian taking the opening game on Stakusic's serve. The Bucharest native then broke twice more on her way to her first-ever win in her first career appearance at the NBO.
Cristian will now play Czechia's Linda Noskova in the second round. Noskova, the 20th seed of the tournament, is coming off a runner-up finish at the Prague Open, where she lost Saturday to compatriot Marie Bouzkova in three sets.
Stakusic set the table for what promises to be a busy day for Canadians on Montreal's Centre Court.
Thursdays
Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.
Highly-touted 18-year-old Victoria Mboko is set to make her main draw debut at the National Bank Open later this afternoon against Australia's Kimberly Birrell. Toronto's Mboko has had a breakout 2025 season on tour, qualifying for both the French Open and Wimbledon, where she reached the third and second round, respectively.
Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., will open up the night session against two-time Grand Slam champion Barbora Krejcikova. The 25-year-old Canadian, who won the NBO in Toronto in 2019, is coming off a strong showing at the Hopman Cup last week in Italy, as she teamed up with Montreal's Felix Auger-Aliassime to capture the exhibition team tournament. Andreescu won all three of her singles matches in straight sets, dropping only nine games at the competition.
Action concludes on Centre Court with Vancouver's Rebecca Marino taking on French qualifier Elsa Jacquemot. The 34-year-old Marino has struggled this season, winning just one WTA Tour-level match all season.
Sunday marks the start of a revamped 12-day, 96-player format, which will notably see the top 32 seeds receive automatic byes into the tournament's second round. Action continues daily at IGA Stadium through until the final, set for Aug. 7.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2025.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Canada News.Net
33 minutes ago
- Canada News.Net
Andrey Rublev, Frances Tiafoe earn third-round wins in Toronto
(Photo credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images) Sixth-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia shrugged off a first-set loss to defeat No. 28 Lorenzo Sonego of Italy 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in third-round action on Friday at the National Bank Open in Toronto. Rublev had six aces among 29 winners in the victory. 'The main thing today, I was able to be mentally really good,' Rublev told the Tennis Channel. 'After the first set, I didn't (go) down. I was, like, OK, let's keep fighting, keep being positive ... then I was able to create more things, like to go to the net.' Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina pulled off an upset as the No. 20 seed knocked out 12th-seeded Jakub Mensik of Czechia 6-2, 6-4. The Spaniard converted all four of his break points as he won 49.1 percent of his returns (28 of 57) compared to Mensik's 29.2 percent (14 of 48). His reward is a fourth-round match versus Rublev. Czechia's Jiri Lehecka earned the day's other upset as the No. 19 seed rallied to take down No. 15 Arthur Fils of France by a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 count. Lehecka stacked up 12 aces to Fils' three on the hard court. No. 7 Frances Tiafoe beat Australia's Aleksandar Vukic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to advance to a fourth-round match with another Aussie, ninth-seeded Alex de Minaur, on Sunday. No. 13 Flavio Cobolli of Italy maxed out his serve at 135 mph during his 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Hungary's Fabian Maroszan.
Winnipeg Free Press
4 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Canadian women defeat U.S. 42-10 in final home game before Rugby World Cup
OTTAWA – Canada scored 28 unanswered points in the second half to dispatch the United States 42-10 Friday in its final home game before heading to Europe for the Rugby World Cup later this month. The second-ranked Canadian women extended their winning streak against the 10th-ranked U.S. to 11 straight games, but it took time to subdue a determined American side in a physical, frenetic contest before an announced crowd of 11,453 at TD Place Stadium. Canada has one more World Cup tune-up on Aug. 9 against No. 5 Ireland in Dublin. The team is scheduled to fly from Toronto on Saturday. Canada, which finished fourth at the last World Cup in November 2022, opens World Cup play in England against No. 14 Fiji on Aug. 23 in York, then face No. 9 Wales on Aug. 30 in Manchester and No. 7 Scotland on Sept. 6 in Exeter. The U.S. will play in Group A at the World Cup, drawn with No. 1 England, No. 8 Australia and No. 15 Samoa. McKinley Hunt, Gabby Senft, Olivia DeMerchant, Florence Symonds and Mikiela Nelson scored tries for Canada, which was also awarded a penalty try. Sophie de Goede, in her first start since having knee surgery, kicked four conversions. Julia Schell added a conversion. Freda Tafuna scored the lone try for the U.S. McKenzie Hawkins booted a conversion and a penalty The Canadian women have won four straight, improving to 5-0-1 this year. They hold a 29-19 edge over the Americans in the all-time series, having won 11 in a row since a 20-18 loss in July 2019 in Chula Vista, Calif. Canada, missing some of its top players, won 26-14 the last time they met, May 2 in Pacific Four Series play in Kansas City. Canada led 14-10 after a fast-paced first half Friday that saw a yellow card shown to each team. The Canadian attack was blunted by handling errors, penalties and some resolute American defence. De Goede returned to the starting lineup, after making a 20-minute cameo off the bench July 12 in a 33-5 win over the 12th-ranked Springbok women in South Africa. That marked the first action for the 26-year-old from Victoria since tearing her anterior cruciate ligament on June 21, 2024, in a non-contact scrimmage against the U.S. on the final day of a Canada sevens camp. Normally a back-rower, de Goede partnered veteran Tyson Beukeboom in the second row with Laetitia Royer nursing an injury. The Americans went ahead in the second minute, retrieving the ball of their own kickoff and launching a multi-phase attack that ended with Tafuna bulling her way over from close range in the second minute for a converted try. De Goede was sent to the sin bin in the 12th minute for an illegal cleanout of American centre Alev Kelter at the breakdown, forcing Canada to play a woman short for 10 minutes. Already trailing 7-0, Canada avoided giving up points while down a player, however. Canada pulled even at 7-7 in the 27th minute on a penalty try awarded by Australia referee Ella Goldsmith after repeated U.S. infractions during a Canadian attack at the goal-line. American lock Hallie Taufoou was sent to the sin bin on the play. Down a player, the U.S. went ahead 10-7 in the 32nd minute on a Hawkins penalty with Canada called for a high tackle. Helped by a U.S. penalty, Canada went ahead on the stroke of halftime as Hunt touched down for a try that confirmed by the television match official. Canada conceded 11 penalties to the Americans' five in the first half. American wing Cheta Emba was sin-binned in the 42nd minute for a deliberate knock-down of a pass that snuffed out a promising Canadian attack. Canada kicked to touch on the ensuing penalty and Senft scored from the back of the maul from the lineout with the conversion upping the Canadian lead to 21-10. A de Goede try in the 59th minute was negated by an obstruction call against veteran flanker Karen Paquin. Canada got tries from DeMerchant in the 63rd minute, Symonds in the 65th and Nelson in the 75th as Canada's bench turned up the heat. The Americans were coming off a 31-24 win over Fiji on July 19 in Washington, D.C., snapping a seven-game losing streak. Canada is 15-5-1 since finishing fourth at the last World Cup. Four of the losses were to England, with the other to No. 3 New Zealand. Canada and New Zealand played to a 27-27 tie in May in Pacific Four Series play. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 1, 2025.
The Province
4 hours ago
- The Province
Summer McIntosh's third gold in Singapore moves her closer to Phelps' record
Canadian swimming sensation Summer McIntosh won her third gold of the Singapore world championships on Thursday in the 200-metre butterfly, coming within two tenths of a second of setting a world record in the event. McIntosh completed the race in 2 minutes, 1.99 seconds, just behind the world mark of 2:01.81 set by Liu Zige of China in 2009. Still, the second-fastest time in history was more than enough to beat Regan Smith of America, who placed second at 2:04.99, and Australia's Elizabeth Dekkers, who was third with 2:06.12. It also moved McIntosh a step closer to match Michael Phelps' record. He is the only swimmer in history to win five individual titles at a single world championships. McIntosh has already won the 400-metre freestyle and the 200-metre individual medley in Singapore. Coincidentally, she announced this year that after Singapore she plans to move to Austin, Texas, to train with Bob Bowman, Phelps' former coach. McIntosh also has a cat named Mikey, in honour of Phelps and his record as the world's most decorated Olympian (28 medals, 23 of them gold). 'I was so close, that's what upsets me a little bit,' McIntosh told CBC after Thursday's race. 'It was so close and I know that last 15 metres I took an extra breath and I should've had my head down.' She added: 'This is definitely going to fuel me for next season, so it leaves a little bit more fuel in the tank and really get closer and closer to that record. If there's one world record that I wanted to break since the start of my career it's this one.' The swimmer, who turns 19 in August, has already been having an amazing summer, even before Singapore. In June she broke two world records in three days at the Canadian swimming trials. McIntosh swam the 200-metre individual medley there in 2 minutes and 5.7 seconds, breaking the previous record of 2:06.12 set by Hungary's Katinka Hosszu in 2015. And she completed the 400-metre freestyle in 3:54.18, shaving more than a second off the old record of 3:55.38 set by Ariarne Titmus of Australia. 'I've been knocking on the door on this one,' she told the Associated Press, referring to the 200-metre race. 'I've just tried to chip away, chip away at it. To finally do it, it's kind of like, wow, I've finally got that done.' 'I'm really trying to take it one race at a time,' she added. 'Really kind of cruising the heats and then coming to every final super locked in and focused.' Next up for McIntosh is the 800-metre freestyle Saturday, where she will square off against American legend Katie Ledecky, the world record holder. McIntosh early in her career had a swim cap once worn by Ledecky, who has 10 Olympic medals, seven of them gold. If McIntosh takes gold there, Sunday's 400-metre individual medley could offer a chance to match Phelps' record of five. McIntosh, the daughter of another Canadian Olympic swimmer, Jill Horstead, was at 14 the youngest member of the Canadian team selected for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021. The Toronto native took fourth place in the 400-metre freestyle that year. A year later, in her World Aquatics Championships debut in Budapest, McIntosh won the 200-metre butterfly and the 400-metre individual medley, breaking the world junior record in both. She went on to win six medals at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham just weeks later, and last year she won three gold medals at the Paris Olympics in her three individual events of the 400 and 200 individual medleys and the 200 butterfly. She also won silver in the 400 free.
