Toronto (Canada), Aug. 7 (EFE).- The Spaniard Cristina Bucsa beat her compatriot Nuria Párrizas Díaz on Sunday in the qualifiers for the Canadian Masters taking place in Toronto, but the player from Granada will have a second chance on Monday to get one box “lucky loser”.

As the organization of the Canadian tournament reported this Sunday, Párrizas Díaz obtained one of the two “lucky loser” places after the packages of the American Shelby Rogers and the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka.

Azarenka, 20th in the world, will not be able to play in the Toronto tournament after Canadian authorities rejected her visa application to enter the country, according to the player herself via Twitter.

Although neither the organization nor Azarenka explained the reasons for the refusal to grant the visa, Canada imposed severe sanctions against Russia and Belarus for invading Ukraine.

After his playoffs, Párrizas Díaz, 31, will play the first round of the Toronto Masters on Monday against American Serena Williams.

Serena Williams, who lost in the first round at Wimbledon this year, has won the Canadian tournament three times and in her last appearance, in 2019, she reached the final.

Also playing in Toronto will be her sister, Venus Williams, 42, who last week lost to Canadian Rebecca Marino in the first round of the Citi Open in Washington, her first singles tournament of 2022.

The second place “lucky loser” of the Canadian Masters went to the Croatian Donna Vekic who will face the Romanian Simona Halep in the first round.

Moldovan-born Spaniard Cristina Bucsa (123) defeated Párrizas Díaz (59) this Sunday in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3.

Bucsa, who needed 80 minutes to beat the Granada player, will face Chinese Shuai Zhang (40) in the first round of the Canadian tournament on Tuesday.

Also this Sunday, alongside Bucsa, the Czechs Marie Bouzkova and Tereza Martincová, the Australians Storm Sanders and Ajla Tomljanović as well as the Americans Madison Brengle, Claire Liu and Asia Muhammad qualified for the first round of the Toronto Masters.

Besides Bucsa and Párrizas Díaz, the Spanish representation at the Canadian Masters, a WTA 1000 event, is made up of Paula Badosa (4), Garbiñe Muguruza (8) and Sara Sorribes Tormo (39).

Badosa is the number four seed in the tournament while Garbiñe Muguruza is the number eight seed.

Sorribes Tormo will play her first match on Tuesday against the American Liu (79th).

18 of the top 20 players in the world rankings are competing this year in Toronto, including world number one, Poland’s Iga Swiatek, as well as Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit (2) and Greece’s Maria Sakkari (3).

Among the ten best players in the world, only the American Danielle Collins (9) is absent from the Canadian tournament.