Alex de Minaur got the better of his fellow Australian James Duckworth in the second round of the Canadian Open, but Andrey Rublev and Flavio Cobolli were on the end of upsets.

De Minaur was a 6-2 7-6 (8-6) victor in his opening match in Montreal, though he did have to save six set points to prevent Duckworth from forcing a decider. 

Having cruised through the opening set in half an hour, De Minaur was put through his paces in the second. 

Duckworth held three set points while 6-5 up, albeit against De Minaur's serve, and three more after surging into a 6-3 lead in the tie-break.

But the third seed held firm on each occasion, and after wrestling back control of the tie-break, he converted his first match point to tee up a third-round meeting with either Cameron Norrie or Ignacio Buse.

Test passed @alexdeminaur fights off six set points to defeat fellow Aussie Duckworth 6-2, 7-6(6) and book his place in the next round.@OBNmontreal | #NBO26 pic.twitter.com/LwWvPWgDUS

— ATP Tour (@atptour) August 5, 2026

There were a couple of shocks on Tuesday, though, with Rublev and Cobolli both succumbing to early exits.

Rublev let five match points slip as he was beaten 7-5 4-6 7-6 (7-5) by China's Shang Juncheng in a two-hour, 44-minute thriller.

Each of the Russian's chances at victory came in a drawn-out, seven-deuce game late in the third set, but Shang held and eventually edged the deciding tie-break, on just his second tour-level appearance since February. 

He said afterwards: "Andrey is a great friend, a great competitor and a good champion. It is a pleasure to share the court with him. 

"But more happily, I'm healthy. I'm definitely playing my best tennis and I'm just happy to be in Montreal."

FIVE. MATCH. POINTS. 

Jerry Shang fends off  match points to knock out Andrey Rublev and become the first Chinese man to reach the third round in Montreal in the Open Era! 🇨🇳@OBNmontreal | #NBO26 pic.twitter.com/rwdfndm0SY

— ATP Tour (@atptour) August 4, 2026

Roland-Garros runner-up Cobolli also crashed out, losing 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-2) to Yannick Hanfmann, who will face Tomas Martin Etcheverry or Nuno Borges next time out. 

Another Italian, Luciano Darderi, did advance after an injury to home favourite Gabriel Diallo, who was forced to retire after losing the first set of their match.

And there were victories for Frances Tiafoe, who beat Marin Cilic 5-7 6-2 6-2, and Jiri Lehecka, who overcame fellow Czech player Vit Kopriva 6-4 6-2.

Tiafoe's North American dream

While the headlines were stolen by Shang and Hanfmann on Tuesday, Tiafoe was also among the victors as he maintained his excellent record on North American soil.

Of all players with 50 or more ATP Masters 1000 wins, since the format's introduction in 1990, only two have claimed a higher share of their victories at North American events than Tiafoe.

He has delivered 78.1% of his wins at this level at events in the United States or Canada (50/64), with only Pat Rafter (81.3%) and Mardy Fish (78.6%) favouring those events more.

Meanwhile, Lehecka – the runner-up in Miami earlier this year – continues to threaten another deep run at an ATP Masters 1000 tournament.

Only Jannik Sinner (29) and Alexander Zverev (18) have bettered his 12 wins at those events this season.