World number two Elena Rybakina survived a major scare to reach the Canadian Open quarter-finals on Sunday in Toronto. The Kazakh star recovered from a 0-3 deficit and two breaks down in the final set to defeat Liudmila Samsonova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
Rybakina is now set to face four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, who eliminated home favorite Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-4. Osaka broke in the seventh game of both sets to advance in 82 minutes, noting, “It was all pretty good for me.”
The 13th-ranked Osaka praised Fernandez’s tenacity, stating, “She has a great attitude. She’s consistent and she will fight. She’s kind of like a bulldog.” Regarding her upcoming first-time meeting with Rybakina, Osaka added, “When I feel comfortable or at least confident in myself knowing I can run things down, I loosen up a lot. 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.”
Fourth-ranked American Coco Gauff also cruised into the last eight, sweeping aside Russian teenage qualifier Alina Korneeva 6-3, 6-1. Gauff, who has not dropped a set in Canada, reached the quarter-finals here for the first time since 2023.
“My main focus today was let me try and close it out,” said Gauff. “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.”
Gauff will next meet 14th-ranked Swiss Belinda Bencic, who defeated 20th-ranked Alexandra Eala 6-4, 6-0 in 73 minutes. Eala is a Filipina who won her first WTA title last Monday in Washington.
Bencic connected on 64.4% of her first serves and won 72.4% of those points, marking her 10th consecutive victory over left-handed opponents. “I hate to play against lefties so I’m surprised by this statistic,” Bencic said. “Very tricky. Maybe it helped me that 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.”
The Japanese star, who has never faced Rybakina, said sound groundstrokes were key.
“I was catching my service toss a couple times.
Hopefully in the next match I don’t do that as often.
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