Vasek Pospisil, who is in the second round of singles, is the last Canadian left standing at Rogers Cup

MONTREAL – He'd rather not have to carry the Canadian torch single-handedly from Day 2 onwards. But Vasek Pospisil will have to, because he's the only Canadian left in the singles at the Rogers Cup.

Pospisil's 6-4, 6-3 win over Yen-Hsun Lu of Taipei was a little less routine than the score suggests. But it was a far better effort than the one two weeks ago against Lu in Atlanta, where he barely squeaked though after a post-Wimbledon break to heal up a bone bruise in his hand.

Later, top Canadian Milos Raonic went out in two tiebreaks to 6-foot-11 Croat Ivo Karlovic, and Frank Dancevic was beaten 6-2, 6-4 by Pablo Andujar of Spain. In Toronto, all the women have been eliminated, including Genie Bouchard, 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 in a topsy-turvy affair against Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.

So it's all up to him.

The 25-year-old now faces No. 16 seed John Isner – another recent foe, just a week ago in Washington, D.C. – in the second round. It could have been worse; it could have been Novak Djokovic or Rafael Nadal.

But it's hardly a walkover.

Here's what Pospisil had to say after the match about the improvements in his game over the last year.

There was plenty of atmosphere on Court Banque Nationale which, as a ticketed court that doesn't sell out, can be a little moribund at times. Fans who don't hold tickets for that specific court can sit in the upper stands, but that can leave the lower bowl a little empty.

The match came during the late afternoon on a day in which, surprisingly, nearly all the matches got played despite a dire forecast (the evening session was late in starting, and No. 2 seed Andy Murray's match against Tommy Robredo was suspended at 11:19 p.m. when another band of showers, and thunder, hit Uniprix Stadium).

As the match involving Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was ending on the stadium court, many fans headed over to support the Canadian while waiting for Novak Djokovic to make his entrance on the big stage. And most of them stayed until the end.

There was a whole lot of fist-pumping and urging himself on as Pospisi tried to cross the finish line in straight sets.

Pospisil's best run, until his quarter-final showing at Wimbledon last month, came in 2013 here and he's channelling all those positive memories, and the following he developed as a result of his play, as he tries to make a run.

As it happens, Pospisil played Isner in 2013 in the first round – and defeated him in a third-set tiebreak before going on to upset No. 6 Tomas Berdych in a third-set tiebreak in the third round and losing to countryman Milos Raonic in the semi-finals in – you guessed it – a third-set tiebreak.

This run has a long, long way to go, still. If Pospisil can get through Isner, he would next be looking at either French Open champion Stan Wawrinka or flashy showman Nick Kyrgios of Australia.

And then, there was this:

With Pospisil's well-documented back woes, any random clutching of the affected area sends immediate alarm bells ringing in Pospisil-land. But he seemed to suffer no ill effects for the rest of the match.

Pospisil's victory came after a loss by wild card Frank Dancevic, who made the quarter-finals here in 2007 and gave Rafael Nadal all he could handle in a three-set loss.

Dancevic, whose fortunes have fallen dramatically this season, is having a lot of trouble winning matches and his defeat at the hands of the capable and vastly underrated Andujar was just another to add to the list.

He had his flashy moments, but his opponent didn't let him do what he loves to do, which is dictate.

The 30-year-old from Niagara Falls had already taken a good look at the match stats before coming into press and he had it all pretty well figured out: he won barely a third of the points on his second serve, while Andujar won 15-of-19 points on his own second serve. Dancevic is a decent returner; that's an incredible number, which Dancevic attributed to the fact that although Andujar doesn't serve hard, his ability to back up the serve with the second shot is impressive.

"He took away all my weapons," Dancevic said.

The wild-card doubles team of Adil Shamasdin and Philip Bester also went down to defeat, 6-3, 6-4 to Marin Cilic and Robert Lindstedt.