Top seed Iga Swiatek of Poland breezed into the next round while No. 10 Coco Gauff needed nearly three hours to beat the Wimbledon champion and advance at the National Bank Open in Toronto on Wednesday.
Also Wednesday, No. 4 seed Paula Badosa of Spain and No. 5 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia were eliminated after retiring from their respective matches. Second-seeded Estonian Anna Kontaveit also fell.
Gauff needed two hours and 49 minutes to defeat Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 6-4, 6-7 (8), 7-6 (3) in the Round of 32.
Gauff squandered four match points in the second set but eventually defeated Rybakina in the deciding third set. Gauff survived 13 double faults in the win.
Swiatek, by contrast, posted a 6-1, 6-2 win over Australian Ajla Tomljanovic 6-1, 6-2 in 64 minutes.
This is just the second main draw appearance for Swiatek in Toronto. She reached the third round in 2019 as a teenager before falling to then-No. 2 seed Naomi Osaka.
“It really gave me extra motivation,” Swiatek said. “Because even though I lost this match against Naomi I remember I was just happy that I could play such a tight match against her. She was World No. 1 back then so it was a big deal for me for sure.”
Kontaveit was ousted 6-4, 6-4 by Jil Teichmann of Switzerland in one hour and 27 minutes. Kontaveit had her chances but converted just 2 of 8 break point opportunities. Teichmann broke Kontaveit four times in six tries.
Badosa was down 7-5, 1-0 when she was forced to retire against Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan. Jabeur also dropped her first set before retiring down 2-1 in the second set to Qinwen Zheng of China.
Sixth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus defeated Sara Sorribes Tormo of Spain 6-4, 6-3 in one hour and 50 minutes to advance.
Hometown favorite and 13th-seeded Canadian Leylah Fernandez fell to Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia 7-6 (4), 6-1.
Other seeded players to advance included No. 7 Jessica Pegula, No. 15 Simona Halep of Romania and No. 14 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic. No. 16 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia lost to Alison Riske-Amritraj 7-6 (2), 0-6, 7-5.
–Field Level Media
