WTA Toronto: Defending champion Pegula reaches the semi-finals

No 3 seed Jessica Pegula beat Peyton Stearns 6-4, 7-5 to move into the semi-finals of the National Bank Open at the Aviva Centre on Saturday night.

“I was probably playing better last year, but to be fair, it seems weird this week,” Pegula said. “I don’t feel like anyone’s playing, like, great tennis. It’s been kind of ugly matches. I don’t really know why.

“Every day’s kind of a new day with tennis, so you never know how you’re going to go out there and play, and you always have the next day to improve and play better. I’m just trying to work my way back up there, especially with not a lot of hard-court wins under my belt yet [this year].”

Pegula, ranked No 6, will play the winner of the match between No 14 seed Diana Shnaider and No 6 seed Liudmila Samsonova next.

Ahead of her victory, Jessica Pegula won against Karolina Pliskova (7-5, 6-4) and qualifier Ashlyn Krueger (6-2, 6-4).

Stearns, ranked No 53, won against Russian Anna Blinkova (6-4, 6-3), No 7 seed Madison Keys (3-6, 7-5, 3-0 ret.) and Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, the No 12 seed (6-4, 4-2 ret.) in the previous rounds of the Rogers Cup.

Toronto WTA 1000, other last-eight results (Aviva Centre, hard, USD 3.211.715, most recent results first):

• Diana Shnaider vs. Liudmila Samsonova
• Amanda Anisimova beat Aryna Sabalenka (2): 6-4, 6-2
• Emma Navarro (8) beat Taylor Townsend (LL): 6-3, 7-6 (5)