TORONTO – Jean-Julien Rojer headlined some notable performances by former UCLA men’s tennis standouts at the Canadian Open, an ATP Tour Masters 1000 event, as the US Open drew closer on the calendar.
Rojer earned the fourth Masters 1000 championship of his career, teaming with Marcelo Arévalo to claim the doubles title. On the singles side Marcos Giron and Mackenzie McDonald recorded top-10 wins en route to the third and quarterfinal rounds, respectively. Maxime Cressy also participated in the singles qualifying rounds.
The unseeded combination of Rojer and Arévalo overpowered No. 3-seed Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury 6-3, 6-1 in the final. The win represented the duo’s fourth of the tournament against a top-10 seed. Rojer and Arévalo got into the driver’s seat with their 6-3, 7-6(4) victory against No. 2-seed Ivan Dodig and Austin Krajicek in the second round before coming out on top of three-set decisions over No. 8 Santiago Gonzalez/Édouard Roger-Vasselin and No. 7 Marcel Granollers/Horacio Zeballos.
Rojer previously collected Masters 1000 doubles crowns at the 2016 and 2019 Madrid Open events twice with Horia Tecau, as well as the 2013 Miami Open alongside Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi.
In singles play, Giron downed fellow American Nick Chappell and Radu Albot of Moldova to advance out of qualifying. A first-round win opposite Emil Ruusuvuori of Finland set up a showdown with No. 5-seed and sixth-ranked Holger Rune of Denmark. Giron would prevail in that one, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, for the second top-10 singles victory of his career. He ultimately fell at the hands of eventual American semifinalist Tommy Paul in the round of 16.
McDonald’s second round also proved to be a memorable one, as a he took down No. 6-seed and seventh-ranked Andrey Rublev in a 6-4, 6-3 result. McDonald added a triumph over Milos Raonic of host-country Canada before bowing out versus Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain in the quarters. With his performance, McDonald has climbed to a career-high No. 43 in the ATP singles rankings.
WHAT a way to finish ????????
The moment @CheloArevaloATP and Jean-Julien Rojer clinch a first Masters 1000 together@NBOtoronto | #NBO23 pic.twitter.com/tEThvYUA5z
— ATP Tour (@atptour) August 13, 2023
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