Montreal (AFP) – Former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina beat Dayana Yastremska 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 on Saturday to book a quarter-final clash with Marta Kostyuk at the WTA Canadian Open in Montreal. Kazakhstan’s Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion who won her first title in more than a year at Strasbourg in May, was slowed by nine double faults.
But she ultimately had enough to get past Ukraine’s Yastremska, who was coming off a straight-sets victory over eighth-seeded American Emma Navarro. Yastremska fell behind an early break in the first set, but took advantage of Rybakina’s early serving woes to break back, and broke again to take the opening set in a game that Rybakina had led 40-0.
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Rybakina, seeded ninth, bore down after that, breaking Yastremska twice to take the second set. Another untimely double fault cost her a break in the third, but she broke Yastremska for the second time in the set to take a 6-5 lead and held on to seal it on her fourth match point with a high backhand volley winner. She’ll face another Ukrainian in Kostyuk, who came from behind to beat American McCartney Kessler 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.
Kostyuk reached the quarter-finals of WTA-1000 events at Qatar and Madrid this year, but she arrived in Montreal having not won a match since reaching the fourth round in Rome. “I hadn’t won a match in three months before this tournament — I didn’t have a lot of confidence coming into it,” she admitted, thanking her team for “sticking with me”.
Top-seeded American Coco Gauff headlined the night session, taking on 18-year-old Canadian wild card Victoria Mboko. Gauff, the reigning French Open champion, has been erratic in clawing her way into the fourth round with a pair of three-set victories and will be looking to step it up against the home hope, who has thrilled fans in her first main draw appearance in the event.
Mboko is in the round of 16 in a 1000-level event for the first time. She took Gauff to three sets on the clay courts of Rome earlier this year and said she was “really excited” for another shot at the American. “She’s the number one seed of this tournament,” Mboko said.
“I’m going to really expect a hard fight. It’s always great to play such incredible athletes and incredible players like her.” The winner of that match will play either China’s Zhu Lin or Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, who are both seeking to reach the quarters of a 1000 level event for the first time. Zhu, once ranked as high as number 31 in the world, has dropped to 493rd after missing the last five months of 2024 and another three months earlier this year with an elbow injury.
© 2024 AFP
