Coco Gauff routed Russian teenager Alina Korneeva 6-3, 6-1 on Sunday to advance to the quarter-finals of the National Bank Open in Toronto.
Gauff became the second player to reach 25 WTA 1000 quarter-finals before her 23rd birthday. Martina Hingis, who, like Gauff, was producing victories in her teens, made 39 quarters in the 1990's.
Gauff lost her serve to open the match, but broke right back and won three of Korneeva's four service games in the opening set.
It was more of the same in the second set, but this time, Gauff won all four of her opponent's service games. For the match, Gauff won 42 of 68 return points.
In the first clash of the day, second-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan outlasted Russia's Liudmila Samsonova in a marathon, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
The Rybakina-Samsonova match took nearly three hours with 217 points played. Rybakina dominated the serving statistics, but still had to face break points 13 times in the match. She managed to hold off Samsonova seven times, while breaking on seven of her 17 chances.
In a wild deciding set, Rybakina trailed 3-0 before storming back to win four consecutive games. After both players held, Rybakina made quick work of her opponent's service game, winning all four points to advance to her fifth WTA 1000 quarter-final appearance in 2026.
“I knew it would be a very tough match. It's always a battle against Liudmila,” Rybakina said on court after the match. “It's really tough to find words now … I'm so tired, but I'm super happy. I was just trying to focus a point at a time.
“I know she's also an aggressive player. If I don't step in, she might be the first one. I'm super happy to be in the next round.”
Osaka through but Eala finally loses
In the late matches, Naomi Osaka of Japan eliminated Leylah Fernandez of Canada, 6-4, 6-4, and Switzerland's Belinda Bencic, the 12th seed, ousted rising Filipina sensation Alexandra Eala, 6-4, 6-0.
Osaka had the edge on Fernandez in aces (7-1) and won 76.3 per cent of her first serves (29 of 38) to 60 per cent (21 of 35) for her opponent in a match lasting one hour 22 minutes.
Bencic converted six of 10 breakpoint opportunities while Eala converted two of four in their match.
Eala's seven-match winning run was snapped after her victorious campaign at the Mubadala DC Open.
“I definitely will take maybe two days off, a day or two. I do have to travel to Cincinnati. I need to get a haircut. I haven’t got a haircut in a while. My nails are grown out,” Eala said during her post-match press conference.
“So, yeah, I’ll do a couple things, just to get my mind off tennis. I think Toronto’s a great place to do that.”
