Tennis roundup: Sevastova topples Pegula, Swiatek advances in Montreal; Fritz, Shelton progress in Toronto

Time of India

9 hours ago

Anastasija Sevastova hits a return to Jessica Pegula during the National Bank Open women's tennis tournament in Montreal. (The Canadian Press via AP)
Montreal:
Anastasija Sevastova stunned two-time defending champion Jessica Pegula 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 on Friday to book a fourth-round clash with Naomi Osaka at the WTA Canadian Open.
Sevastova, a former world No. 11 now ranked 386th, snapped fourth-ranked Pegula's 11-match WTA Canada win streak, the longest since Serena Williams reeled off 14 consecutive wins in 2011, 2013 and 2014.
She will try to extend her Montreal run in a round of 16 meeting with Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion from Japan who ousted another Latvian, 22nd seed Jelena Ostapenko, 6-2, 6-4.
"Somehow, I was down 2-0 in the second set and started to play better and better," Sevastova said.
"Third set I played really good.
"Just trying to stay on the court as long as possible," added Sevastova, who has dealt with injury since returning from maternity leave in February 2024.
In the night session, second-seeded Iga Swiatek -- playing her first tournament since winning Wimbledon -- raced into the fourth round with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Germany's Eva Lys.
Swiatek next faces Denmark's Clara Tauson, who beat Yuliia Starodubtseva 6-3, 6-0.
Pegula, last year's US Open runner-up in her best Slam showing, was the first woman to win back to back Canadian Open titles since Martina Hingis in 1999-2000.
But she has struggled in recent months, dropping her openers at Wimbledon and at Washington last week.
The American broke to open the match and again at love to claim the first set.
But she couldn't maintain an early break in the second, with Sevastova breaking for a 5-4 lead and denying Pegula on three break chances before holding in the final game to force a third set in which she seized a 4-1 lead on the way to victory.
'Weird match'
"It was a weird match for me," Pegula said. "I felt like I had total control and then I just played a couple of terrible games for, like, three games.
"That totally flipped the momentum of the match, and I went from being up a set and 2-0 to being down very quickly.
"I don't really feel like I'm playing great tennis," Pegula admitted. "At times I am, but I feel very up and down, kind of sloppy, which I don't like. I've got to figure it out."
Osaka, twice a winner at both the US and Australian Opens, is one match away from her first quarter-final run at either a Grand Slam or WTA 1000 event since she returned from maternity leave at the start of 2024.
Now ranked 49th, Osaka broke on a double fault to capture the first set in 30 minutes and raced to a 3-1 lead in the second.
They exchanged breaks before Osaka served for the match with a 5-3 lead, but Ostapenko saved a match point on a forehand crosscourt winner and broke when Osaka sent a forehand beyond the baseline.
The Japanese star responded by breaking Ostapenko at love in the final game.
"I went in there knowing she's a great player and if I give her a chance she's going to hit a winner on me, so I just tried to keep my pace and stay as solid as I could," Osaka said.
Australian Open champion Madison Keys, seeded sixth, beat fellow American Caty McNally 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 and will next meet Karolina Muchova, a 6-7 (2/7), 6-2, 6-3 winner over Belinda Bencic.
Fifth-seeded American Amanda Anisimova, regrouping this week after a crushing 6-0, 6-0 loss to Swiatek in the Wimbledon final, swept past Britain's Emma Raducanu 6-2, 6-1.
She lined up a meeting with Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who beat Russian Anna Kalinskaya 6-1, 6-1.
Fritz ends Canadian hopes in Toronto
Taylor Fritz returns a forehand to Gabriel Diallo during their match at the National Bank Open men's tennis tournament in Toronto. (The Canadian Press via AP)
Toronto:
Taylor Fritz ended Canadian hopes at the ATP Toronto Masters on Friday as he crushed Gabriel Diallo 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the fourth round.
The American second seed needed just 77 minutes to dispatch the the 37th-ranked local and book a meeting with Jiri Lehecka, a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 winner over France's Arthur Fils.
Fritz is aiming to at least reach the quarter-finals north of the border, the only Masters where he has not gone that far.
He broke once in the opening set against a nervous opponent and dominated from there.
"It was important not to let him get into the match and get the crowd fired up," Fritz said.
"I knew the momentum could shift at any time.
"I'm super happy with it, considering how I felt on the court two nights ago in my first match," Fritz added.
"I felt way more comfortable, confident, just hitting the ball, being aggressive, just striking it. I did well to be up an early break in the sets. I did well to just hold.
"Played really solid from the baseline as well. I backed it up well from the ground, and just did a good job of not letting him back in the sets."
Brandon Nakashima won his first set against American Ben Shelton before the fourth-seeded Shelton rallied to finish off a 6-7 (8/10), 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) win.
Shelton had trailed by a break in the deciding set and Nakashima saved four match points before Shelton sealed the victory with his 19th ace.
Shelton finished with 46 winners to improve to 5-0 against Nakashima and will fight for a quarter-final berth against Flavio Cobolli, who downed Fabian Marozsan 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
"I've got to find my fire from somewhere," Shelton said of the late-night crowd support in Canada. "I live off of that.
"Night matches are never easy, the temperature cools down and conditions are different. I showed a lot of perseverance. it's difficult being down against a big server. To come from behind takes a bit of luck."
The seeded pair of Andrey Rublev and Frances Tiafoe were tested over three sets before also making their way into the fourth round.
Sixth seed Rublev, runner-up in Canada a year ago to Alexei Popyrin, advanced 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 as Lorenzo Sonego double-faulted on match point in their contest.
'You have to compete'
Tiafoe, the number seven, confessed to a bad day but earned his win the hard way as he beat Australian Aleksandar Vukic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
"The ball was flying a lot, it was really ugly, but I'm happy to get through it," Tiafoe said. "It doesn't matter how you win.
You just have to compete."
Tiafoe next lines up against another Aussie in Alex de Minaur, who advanced when compatriot Christopher O'Connell pulled out with an injury.
Rublev now goes against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who beat him this season on clay in Barcelona. The Spaniard beat Jakob Mensik 6-2, 6-4.
"I'm really happy, it's my first time in the round of 16 here in Toronto," Rublev said, adding that he had to adjust his serve in windy conditions to fashion his comeback.
"I played more aggressive in the second set and made fewer mistakes. I was doing more with my serve. I had to slow it wide in the wind."
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