Toronto ¨C World No. 2 Elena Rybakina survived a huge scare to battle into the Canadian Open quarterfinals on Sunday in Toronto, while fourth-ranked Coco Gauff cruised through.
Kazakhstan¡¯s Rybakina recovered from being 0-3 and two breaks down in the final set to beat Liudmila Samsonova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 before American Gauff swept aside another Russian, teenage qualifier Alina Korneeva, 6-3, 6-1 in Toronto.
Rybakina will face a quarterfinal against four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, who eliminated home hero Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-4.
Gauff reached the last eight in Canada for the first time since 2023 and will come up against Swiss 12th seed Belinda Bencic, who won 6-4, 6-0 in 73 minutes over 20th-ranked Alexandra Eala, a Filipina who won her first WTA title last Monday in Washington.
¡°My main focus today was let me try and close it out,¡± said Gauff, who has not dropped a set in Canada.
¡°Probably not the way I should be thinking, but it worked today.
¡°I¡¯m proud of how the last three matches have gone and just knowing if I have to go the distance I¡¯m ready but obviously would prefer to cut it short if I can.¡±
Osaka broke in the seventh game of each set to advance in 82 minutes.
¡°It was all pretty good for me,¡± the 13th-ranked Osaka said. ¡°She has a great attitude. She¡¯s consistent and she will fight. She¡¯s kind of like a bulldog.¡±
The Japanese star, who has never faced Rybakina, said sound groundstrokes were key.
¡°When I feel comfortable or at least confident in myself knowing I can run things down, I loosen up a lot,¡± Osaka said.
¡°I was catching my service toss a couple times. Hopefully in the next match I don¡¯t do that as often.
¡°I need to be confident in myself, execute what I can and at the end of the day just try my best and whatever happens happens.¡±
Bencic connected on 64.4% of her first serves and won 72.4% of those points in a 73-minute victory, her 10th win in a row over left-handed opponents.
¡°I hate to play against lefties so I¡¯m surprised by this statistic,¡± Bencic said. ¡°Very tricky.
¡°Maybe helped me I played a lefty the round before against Taylor Townsend. I got used to the serve a little bit. I wish I was a lefty too.¡±
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