33 double-faults later, Gauff edges Sabalenka to reach Toronto last eight

American Coco Gauff, the No 10 seed, reached the last eight of the National Bank Open by edging out Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the No 6 seed, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (4) at the Aviva Centre in Toronto on Thursday evening.

Gauff has squeaked through back-to-back third-set tiebreakers against Elena Rybakina and Sabalenka to take her place in her sixth quarter-final of 2022.

She hit 15 double-faults in the contest and had her serve broken four times, but Sabalenka hit 18 double-faults and was broken four times as well.

“It was a difficult match for both of us,” Gauff said. “Obviously we were both struggling with the serve. The conditions weren’t easy today, a lot of wind.”

Overall I think that I hung in there mentally and that’s what I’m most proud of.

The 18-year-old American is the youngest player to reach back-to-back quarter-finals at the National Bank Open since Jennifer Capriati in 1990-91.

Gauff, ranked No 11, will play Romanian Simona Halep, the No 15 seed – Halep owns a 3-0 lifetime record over Gauff.

Toronto WTA 1000, other last 16 results (Aviva Centre, hard, USD 2.527.250, most recent results first):

• Belinda Bencic vs. Garbine Muguruza
• Bianca Andreescu vs. Qinwen Zheng
• Maria Sakkari vs. Karolina Pliskova
• Alison Riske-Amritraj vs. Yulia Putintseva
• Jessica Pegula vs. Camila Giorgi
• Iga Swiatek vs. Beatriz Haddad Maia
• Simona Halep vs. Jil Teichmann: thursday

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