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Taylor Fritz tops Andrey Rublev to make National Bank Open semifinals

Taylor Fritz tops Andrey Rublev to make National Bank Open semifinals

National Post2 days ago
Taylor Fritz blasted his way to the National Bank Open semifinal.
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The hard-serving No. 2 seed from the United States topped No. 6 Andrey Rublev of Russia 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Tuesday at Sobeys Stadium.
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Fritz, who finished with 20 aces, will next face the winner of the late quarterfinal between No. 4 Ben Shelton of the U.S. and No. 9 Alex de Minaur of Australia.
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Wednesday's other semifinal will see top-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany — the 2017 tournament winner in Montreal — take on No. 11 Karen Khachanov of Russia.
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The title showdown for the Canadian men's tennis championship goes Thursday on the campus of York University in northwest Toronto.
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Fritz came out firing in hazy and breezy conditions on Centre Court with three aces to win the first game. He then broke Rublev in securing the match's first eight points.
The 27-year-old, who sits fourth in the ATP Tour rankings and lost last year's U.S. Open final to world No. 1 Jannik Sinner, fired two more aces to go up 4-1 before serving out the set.
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Looking for his 11th ATP Tour victory — and second Masters 1000 crown — Fritz broke Rublev with the second set tied 4-4, but the Russian returned the favour to stay alive in the next game.
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Fritz, however, wouldn't be denied in the tiebreak, and hammered his 20th ace to close out the match.
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The Santa Fe, Calif., product lost in the Wimbledon semis to world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz, who along with a host of top players including Sinner, No. 5 Jack Draper and No. 6 Novak Djokovic all skipped the event expanded to two weeks in 2025.
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Fritz has two tournament wins on grass in 2025 and twice previously fell in the NBO round of 16 before this summer's run. He also fell to Sinner in last year's U.S. Open final.
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Rublev came to Toronto ranked No. 11 overall after losing in last year's final to Australia's Alexei Popyrin. The 27-year-old from Moscow made the fourth round of both Wimbledon and the French Open. Popyrin lost to Zverev in the quarters on Monday night.
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Ontario's pool pinch has London aquatics clubs competing for space
Ontario's pool pinch has London aquatics clubs competing for space

CBC

time2 hours ago

  • CBC

Ontario's pool pinch has London aquatics clubs competing for space

Social Sharing When 15-year-old Luke Ybarra started playing water polo in London a year ago, he already had big goals to join the provincial team. Having taken swimming lessons since he was a child and participating in a local swim team since he moved to London in 2019, Ybarra said he loves spending time in the water. The problem? He doesn't always have access to pool time. "Because of how many clubs we have in London and the small number of pools, it makes us have to go to smaller-size pools like at the YMCA, which for water polo specifically, is really hard to do because it's either too shallow or too small," Ybarra said, adding that London only has two deep 50 m pools. "For water polo, you have to be treading water, jumping and doing all sorts of things in water," he explained. "If you're a six foot tall guy, you can hit your foot at the bottom or whack your hand when you're throwing the ball. It can really hurt or possibly break something." Access to aquatics facilities is a challenge that athletes, recreational clubs and new swimmers across the province are facing. A January report from the Aquatic Sport Council of Ontario found there is an "urgent need" for more and larger aquatics centres in the province as the population grows. Most indoor 50 m pools in Ontario were constructed between 1970 and 2010, and only four were built after 2000, the report said. Large 50 m pools not only support competitive sports like water polo, diving and artistic swimming, but also recreational family swims, aquafit classes and drowning prevention workshops, it said. Canada's pool shortage leading to training issues, swim lesson wait lists 6 days ago As Canada's Summer McIntosh racks up world records, a shortage of pool facilities is raising concern that the country's next generation of athletes won't have a place to swim. "Swimming is a life skill. No matter where you are in Canada, you'll find water so it's really important to be able to stay afloat and be safe," Middlesex Swimming head coach Mackenzie Salmon said. "Without appropriate access to pools, the strain goes elsewhere, which in my opinion is arguably much worse when you have fire, police and other individuals responding to deaths that occur in open water," he said. Local clubs competing for pool time London's two 50 m pools are located at Western University and the Canada Games Aquatic Centre in White Hills. Since the university pool tends to prioritize student use, clubs say they are vying for time at the latter aquatic facility. "It's a challenging process because the clubs and groups that have been accessing space for years have the most opportunity to continue to have that space," Forest City Water Polo head coach Allyson Watson said, adding that her club is only four years old. "I don't actually think it's fair to take space away from them to give to other people, so I'm not arguing for that, I just think that there's not enough time and there's not enough pools in London to support the programs and clubs that want to use them," she said. One of London's longstanding aquatics organizations is the Forest City Dive Club, whose athletes can only practice at the Canada Games Aquatic Centre because of its depth and diving boards. "We always have in the back of our heads this acknowledgement that if we give up any pool time, we're not going to get it back," club board member Ian Kerr said. "Everyone holds on to every minute that they've got." While neither club currently has a waitlist of participants, Kerr and Watson both said it is challenging to get new or recreational athletes enough time in the water, meaning that it may take them longer to reach a competitive level and the organizations more time to build membership. "We have grown a lot, but we don't have the capacity to continue to grow because we just don't have enough pool time available," Watson said. Need for bigger, multipurpose facilities Not only are there not enough pools in London currently, but Salmon predicts more will close in the near future due to maintenance costs. "All pools, just like anything else, will deteriorate and need to be fixed, unfortunately," he said, adding that he wants cities to think about building or upgrading pool infrastructure often and early. "[Pools] don't get built in a day – just like Rome. It's not a simple process like it used to be, with all the different liabilities, time and materials," he said. Both Kerr and Watson said they think London's next pool should be built with community and club needs in mind, including length, depth and access to other features such as dry-land training space. "If we had other pools that could accommodate some of the other sports, then we'd have less overlap at the Canada Games Aquatics Centre," Kerr said. "I think it would be great if the city did some good engagement around what a new facility could look like."

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