33 double-faults later, Gauff edges Sabalenka to reach Toronto last eight
Coco Gauff edged out Aryna Sabalenka 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (4) on Thursday evening and will play the winner of the match between Romanian Simona Halep, the No 15 seed, and Swiss Jil Teichmann in the next round
Coco Gauff celebrates a point won at Toronto || Icon / SMI Panoramic
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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