MONTREAL -- Maria Sharapova advanced to the second round of the Rogers Cup with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over qualifier Sesil Karatantcheva of Bulgaria on Tuesday.
Play resumed under the afternoon sun with Sharapova leading 4-1 in the first set after heavy rain and lightning forced organizers to suspend the match late Monday following a three-hour rain delay.
Sharapova, making her first Rogers Cup appearance since 2014, picked up where she left off Monday. She won six straight games after the restart and needed only 36 minutes to win the second set.
The 31-year-old had three aces and only committed two double faults to her opponent’s 11.
“Would have loved to finish last night to get a break today, but that’s not how things work,” Sharapova said. “You have to adjust. I think I did a good job of finishing the job today.”
The Russian is 5-0 all time against the 229th-ranked Karatantcheva, who was playing in her first WTA main draw in more than a year.
Sharapova, ranked 22nd in the world, will face Daria Kasatkina of Russia (No. 12) or Maria Sakkari of Greece (No. 31) in the second round.
Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard is out after a 6-2, 6-4 first-round loss to Elise Mertens of Belgium.
The 129th-ranked Bouchard lost the match in 1 hour, 34 minutes in front of her hometown fans as she dropped to 4-11 all time at the Rogers Cup.
The Westmount, Quebec, native started the match poorly. She was broken three times and dropped the first five games of the first set.
The 24-year-old showed signs of life though, winning back-to-back games in the first set before losing 6-2. She started the second set by winning her first three games.
But Bouchard’s service game let her down the entire match, and it allowed Mertens to claw her way back into the second set.
Bouchard was broken twice in the second, for a total of five times in the match, as Mertens won the next five games en route to the victory.
Bouchard connected on just 54 percent of her first serves and won 56 percent of her first service points.
The 15th-ranked Mertens, who is making her Rogers Cup debut, will now face either Shuai Zhang of China (No. 32) or qualifier Barbora Krejcikova (No. 232) of the Czech Republic in the second round.
Bouchard has not beaten a top-20 player since defeating Angelique Kerber at the Madrid Open in May 2017.
Earlier Tuesday, Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko was eliminated after a 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-2 loss to Britain’s Johanna Konta.
Ostapenko, the 11th seed in Montreal, committed 10 double faults while struggling with her serve as she was eliminated in the first round at the Rogers Cup for the third straight year.
Konta had eight aces while committing just three double faults.
“Because of the back and forth in that first set, after that what I did well was I settled down,” said Konta, the former world No. 4. “I played myself into the match and tried to be as tough as possible.
“She has such a big game, so many big shots, sometimes you are spectator out there. When I had the opportunity to do the most I could, stay strong, I think I built up enough momentum. That’s why I was able to keep pushing through in the second and third.”
In other early matches, Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands made quick work of Carol Zhao of Canada, winning 6-1, 6-2 while world No. 8 Petra Kvitova outlasted Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6-3, 6-4.
Belgium’s Alison Van Uytvanck cruised past Russian qualifier Sofya Zhuk 6-1, 6-2 and Sorana Cirstea beat Monica Niculescu 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in an all-Romanian matchup.
The 10th seed Julia Goerges of Germany came from a set down to beat qualifier Lucie Safarova 2-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Garbine Muguruza, the tournament’s eighth seed, withdrew with an arm injury. Puerto Rico’s Monica Puig took her spot in the main draw.
