Australian men are making quite a "racquet" at the Canadian Open, with three notching straight-sets wins in the first round.
Tristan Schoolkate, Chris O'Connell and Aleksandar Vukic all advanced to the second round at the Masters 1000 hardcourt tournament, a vital lead-up to next month's final grand slam of the year, the US Open in New York.
Their victories in Toronto continue a great week for Australian men's tennis after Alex de Minaur secured his 10th career title by taking out the Washington Open.
Schoolkate, who fought his way into the main draw through qualifying, defied his world ranking of No.103 with a 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 win over highly-rated Brazilian prospect Joao Fonseca on Monday (Tuesday AEST).
The 24-year-old Schoolkate secured the only break of the match in the second set to beat the talented teenager, tipped as one of the next big things on the men's circuit.
Schoolkate's serve was on song, winning 89 per cent of points off his first delivery compared with world No.49 Fonseca's 76 per cent.
Victory earned Schoolkate a second-round encounter with Italian Matteo Arnaldi, the 32nd seed.
O'Connell, ranked 78th in the world, was in a particularly ruthless mood, dismissing 23-year-old Taiwanese player Tseng Chun-Hsin 6-1 6-2.
The 31-year-old from Sydney was only broken once in the match, while breaking his 107th-ranked opponent five times.
Serving efficiency was one of the decisive aspects, O'Connell sending down six aces to none from Tseng.
Second-serve effectiveness also proved telling, with the Aussie winning 57 per cent off his second delivery, while the young Taiwanese could only claim 29 per cent.
Vukic, ranked No.99 in the world, joined his fellow Aussies in the second round with a 7-5 6-3 win over Pedro Martinez.
The Spaniard, ranked No.68, is 31 places above Vukic in the standings, but the numbers difference meant little to the Australian.
Vukic was also deadly on serve, pounding down eight aces to his opponent's one.
He also won 77 per cent of his first-serve points, compared with just 51 per cent for Martinez.
Returning also proved pivotal, with Vukic converting five of the 10 break points he forged, while the Spaniard broke three times from just five break-point opportunities.
Australia will be hoping for another successful day when defending champion Alexei Popyrin, James Duckworth and Adam Walton play on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST).
On paper, Popyrin, ranked No.26, should have few problems against Canadian Nicolas Arseneault, the world No.636.
However, Walton and Duckworth both have much more daunting challenges, facing top-seeded German Alexander Zverev and third-seeded Italian Lorenzo Musetti respectively.
In other results on Monday, there were victories for 2022 champion Pablo Carreno Busta and fellow Spaniard Jaume Munar, as well as American Mackenzie McDonald.
No seeded men were in action on Monday at the tournament, which had already suffered the withdrawals of top-ranked Jannik Sinner, world No.2 Carlos Alcaraz, No.5 Jack Draper and No.6 Novak Djokovic.
