American Coco Gauff worked under the sun for more than three hours to defeat Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka in the third round of the National Bank Open, going 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(4) in Toronto on Thursday triumph.
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The 10th seed took exactly 191 minutes to win on Center Court at Sobeys Stadium. The duel was characterized by several changes of pace, with Sabalenka having problems on the serve in the first set. She committed nine double faults and settled for a single ace, which infuriated her at times.
However, it was in the tie break of the deciding set that the match was decided. With a 3-3 deadlock, Gauff pulled away, taking advantage of her opponent’s unforced errors. The sixth favorite also sent her last shot too low to confirm her defeat.
With the balls in hand, the player from the USA did not convince despite the victory. She made 15 double faults in total, but her rival did worse at 18. For her part, Sabalenka maintained a low efficiency percentage of 51.9% on her first serve.
In the quarter-finals, the winner meets Romanian Simona Halep, who is ranked 15th and who easily defeated Swiss Jil Teichmann, 21st in the world rankings, in two sets 6:2 and 7:5. The former WTA Tour No. 1 had to save a break point in the final game but came back strong to end hostilities in 90 minutes. Four breaks from a total of nine opportunities were enough for Halep, who hasn’t dropped a single set since arriving in Ontario.
Pegula, wait
In the same part of the draw, seventh seeded American Jessica Pegula won her third round duel against Italy’s Camila Giorgi 3-6, 6-0 and 7-5.
Pegula did not give up in this duel, which took place in three stages. After pulverizing her rival, the 29th slugger in the world, in the second round in no time, she had to work hard to win the ultimate set.
In the quarterfinals, her paths crossed with those of Yulia Putintseva from Ukraine. The one who got Canadian Katherine Sebov to bite the dust in the first round eliminated American Alison Riske-Amritraj in straight sets 6-3, 7-5 this time.
Putintseva, who is ranked 46th in the WTA, becomes the second-lowest player to reach that level of the competition, behind Bianca Andreescu’s downfall, Qinwen Zheng (51st).