Tokyo: Fernandez battles past Gracheva to reach quarters

Canadian Leylah Fernandez, the No 8 seed, edged out Frenchwoman Varvara Gracheva 6-0, 3-6, 7-5 to reach the last eight of the WTA Toray Pan Pacific Open at the Ariake Coliseum on Wednesday.

Fernandez, ranked No 35, led 2-0 in the final set but Gracheva fought back to get the decider back on serve. In the end, the Canadian broke in the 12th game to complete the first round win and improves to 2-0 lifetime against the Frenchwoman.

She will face the winner of the match between Chinese Zheng Qinwen, the top seed, and Japanese Moyuka Uchijima next in what will be her fifth quarter-final of the season.

In the previous round of the tournament, the 22-year-old Canadian benefited from the retirement of Belarusian lucky loser Aliaksandra Sasnovich (5-7, 6-2, 5-2).

Gracheva, ranked No 68, won against Japanese qualifier Mai Hontama (6-1, 7-6 (4)) earlier in the week.

Tokyo WTA 500, other second-round matches (Ariake Coliseum, hard, USD 922,573):

• Katie Boulter vs. Kyoka Okamura
• McCartney Kessler vs. Daria Kasatkina
• Sofia Kenin vs. Clara Tauson
• Qinwen Zheng vs. Moyuka Uchijima
• Bianca Andreescu vs. Beatriz Haddad Maia
• Sayaka Ishii vs. Zeynep Sonmez
• Diana Shnaider vs. Viktoriya Tomova

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