In the main draw of the Madrid tennis tournament, there is one Canadian less in the women’s singles: Rebecca Marino suffered a devastating 6-3, 6-1 defeat against Belgian Elise Mertens on Thursday.

The winner didn’t hold back against the 79th player in the world, whom she defeated in 1 hour 16 minutes. The 29th-ranked WTA player capitalized on the generosity of her serving rival to earn six breaks from 11 chances. Mertens won 70.0% of points played when she had the first balls in her possession, compared to 51.9% for Marino in identical circumstances.

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The Polish Iga Swiatek is the favorite in the clay court competition and will contest her second round duel against the Austrian Julia Grabher on Friday.

Eugenie and Bianca

On the same day, the two still competitive Maple Leaf athletes will also take to the field. Quebec’s Eugenie Bouchard, 285th on the pro circuit, will have the tough task of taking on Italy’s Martina Trevisan (20th). ‘Genie’ is having a good time in Spain after winning two qualifiers before beating Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska in three sets on Wednesday.

Bianca Andreescu (27th) from Ontario will return to action in Miami after suffering a ligament injury to her left ankle a few weeks ago. She will cross swords with China’s Xiyu Wang, 65th in the world.

After Leylah Fernandez was eliminated in her first singles match, she will play alongside American Taylor Townsend in doubles against Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko and Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok.

Félix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov will make their debuts for men on Friday. The first meets Jason Kubler or Dusan Lajovic. The second has an appointment with Zhang Zhizhen.