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“The speed of light!” — followed by Einstein’s numerical equation — is what Frenchman Terence Atmane enigmatically scrawled on the camera lens after unexpectedly sending Britain’s No 1 Jack Draper back to the drawing board. This, after a round 1, three-set tussle during which the Brit relaunched himself into the top tiers of ATP competition, only to experience a rude awakening. One might expect mathematical murmuring from American golfer Bryson DeChambeau, who treats his golf swing as a physics equation and applies algorithms to course management. However, Atmane, equally fascinated by the universe and quantum physics, tends to allude to such theories only after a very big win.Whether the Frenchman was referring to the fact his headspace and timing were in perfect alignment, hence his ability to beat a former world No 4, we shall never know, yet irrefutably in this instance, Draper’s were not. He was not seeing the light, let alone marvelling about the speed of it. Instead he produced his own hitherto rare outburst — shedding tears — equating to both figurative and literal pain, coupled with the dawning realisation that recovering from any lengthy injury is never going to happen at the speed of light.Take heed, Carlos Alcaraz, who is hoping for a US Open comeback post-wrist surgery and after being sidelined for over eight months. The Spaniard, having withdrawn from Montreal, has now pulled out of Cincinnati and would be wise to avoid the US Open altogether, with the huge deficit of match practice under his belt this season.The final nail in the drawcard’s coffin was unseeded Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor’s unceremonious axing of top seed Alexander Zverev 6-7 6-2 6-4Novak Djokovic is another example of a top player beaten prematurely in attempting to relaunch himself after an extended period away from the tour.It has taken Stefanos Tsitsipas over a year to pull himself out of the doldrums and back towards the top 50 by shaking off a back injury and his father, Apostolos, as coach to rebuild some winning momentum in his otherwise depleted game. Admittedly, the newly crowned Gstaad champion was confronting a mere qualifier, American Martin Damm, in his opening Montreal face-off, having had the humiliation of having to qualify himself for a tournament for the first time, but a win is a win.Nevertheless, that threw Tsitsipas up against next-gen star No 27 Joao Fonseca, who has beaten the Greek on the only other occasion they met in a Davis Cup rubber, on hard courts, in Greece, and proceeded to oust the Greek yet again 7-6(5) 7-5, underscoring how long the comeback trail can be.There was more bad news for Montreal administrators in that a slew of top players bit the dust mid-week: Italian Flavio Cobolli was felled by world No 59 German Yannick Hanfmann; Taylor Fritz by No 57 Argentinian Thiago Tirante; Daniel Medvedev by No 70 Botic van de Zandschulp; as was Rublev, narrowly beaten by little-known Chinese Juncheng Shang, who miraculously saved five match points to steal victory from the Russian. Worse still was the shock withdrawal of Canadian No 1 and 2nd seed Felix Auger-Aliassime on account of a recurring back injury, who had high hopes of becoming the first Canadian to win in Montreal in the Open era.And the final nail in the drawcard’s coffin was unseeded Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor’s unceremonious axing of top seed Alexander Zverev 6-7 6-2 6-4.On the subject of a stellar ascent this season, 19-year-old Spaniard Rafael Jodar tops the bill in the wake of reaching his second tour-level final in WashingtonFortunately at the WTA sister event in Toronto there was something to celebrate in that a new star has emerged: feisty Alex Eala — who made history in becoming the first Filipino to win a WTA title when she lifted the Washington trophy last Sunday, beating world No 3 Jessica Pegula — has, after one big win, already become a valuable commodity. Eala’s opening match against American Alycia Parks was moved from Grandstand to Centre Court. ”We can’t put her on there [Grandstand] because she’s probably sold upwards of 5,000 seats,“ said tournament director Karl Hale. On the subject of a stellar ascent this season, 19-year-old Spaniard Rafael Jodar tops the bill in the wake of reaching his second tour-level final in Washington. Despite being outgunned by the resurgent American No 1 Fritz in three sets, Jodar earned his top 20 debut and the admiration of Fritz in his post-match interview: “It’s incredible what you and your team have achieved this year.”And what the Spaniard and his father and coach have achieved is a huge leapfrog from No 168 to No 15 in the world, while Jodar continued with his winning ways on debut in Montreal by eliminating France’s Corentin Moutet.Fritz too, on the back of his Washington victory, has moved to No 8 in the rankings and is back in the running for the end-of-year ATP Finals.And if Auger-Alliasime failed to make history this week, then Coleman Wong did: he is officially the first player from Hong Kong to break into the Top 100, sitting at No 92.Thus, at this stage in the gaping wide draw, defending champion Ben Shelton is on track to bag a Canadian double at the speed of light unless Atmane, after scalping former top 10 player Karen Khachanov, can conjure up another “Eureka moment”.
