Two more Canadians out former Wimbledon champs Pospisil and Sock ousted in the first round of doubles

NEW YORK – They certainly had their chances to put it away in straight sets, and they certainly made every effort to come back in their first-round match Wednesday at the US Open.

But the 4-6, 7-6 (8) 7-5 loss to Leonardo Mayer of Argentina and Joao Sousa of Portugal was another disappointment for the doubles team of Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock Wednesday at the US Open.

The 2014 Wimbledon champions, seeded No. 11 here, are out in the first round – and Pospisil is out of the tournament altogether after losing his first-round singles match in dramatic fashion. You have to think that the possibility of taking part in the year-end championships is getting rather remote.

Pospisil and Sock never go down without a fight, though. As they did at WImbledon this year when they went down two sets and pushed it to the limit against the team of Jamie Murray and John Peers, they came back. Pospisil and Sock were down two breaks of serve early in the third set at 0-3, got it back to 5-5, but then the comeback petered out.

They're a "big win" now to all teams who face them. And the novelty has definitely worn off for the two singles players who have repeatedly said the doubles is not a priority, it's just fun.

It's definitely more fun when you're winning, though.

Here's what it looked like.

The other surprise casualty of the day was the team of Gloucester, Ont.'s Gabriela Dabrowski and Polish partner Alicja Rosolska. The two made it to the third round a year ago here, upsetting the No. 10 seeds, Aussie Casey Dellacque and Ashleigh Barty, in the first round.

Wednesday, they got off to a great start before it all fell apart in a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 defeat to the Ukrainian twin sisters, Nadiia and Lyudmyla Kichenok.

The match turned, even if it undoubtedly was pure coincidence, on a point lost when the pair got distracted by the Kichenoks calling out before Dabrowski hit an overhead.

It wasn't one of those hindrance calls such as the famous one here in 2011 when Serena Williams cried out in emphatic victory before the point was officially over during a match against Samantha Stosur. It was one of those things your opponents in doubles do regularly that makes you crazy if you're big on the rules; a sitter overhead was coming, the twins were in trouble, one yelled to the other - the Ukrainian version of "Back! Back up!".

Dabrowski and Rosolska complained to the chair umpire, who reminded the Kichenoks of that pretty basic rule, and that was that. But after that, for whatever reason, the match turned.

There was this funny moment, though, another episode that happens in doubles regularly at every tennis club on the planet - a little lack of communications between partners.

They ended up winning that point, which is probably why they were laughing so much.

Dabrowski, who is currently ranked No. 47 in doubles, will drop out of the top 60 with the loss.

On the positive side, Toronto's Daniel Nestor and new partner Édouard Roger-Vasselin, seeded No. 9, were 6-4, 6-4 winners over the big-serving team of Chris Guccione and Andre Sa.

The last two Canadians will take the court this today as Caledon, Ont's Erin Routliffe and her University of Alabama partner Maya Jansen, who won the US Open's national wild-card playoff this summer, face the No. 6 seeds, Americans Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears.

As well, Adil Shamasdin and his Austrian partner Philipp Oswald play their first-round men's doubles match. They will meet the experienced duo of Alexander Peya (Austria) and Bruno Soares (Brazil), the No. 10 seeds.

Genie Bouchard also will be back on court late this afternoon; she's teaming up with Elena Vesnina of Russia in women's doubles. Vesnina forms out of the best women's doubles teams in the world with countrywoman Ekaterina Makarova, who is not playing doubles here, and they have a great shot to advance against the pickup team of American Madison Brengle and German Tatjana Maria.