She secured a tough 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Liudmila Samsonova
\n TORONTO
\nWorld number two Elena Rybakina survived a huge scare to battle into the Canadian Open quarter-finals on Sunday in Toronto while fourth-ranked Coco Gauff cruised through.
\nKazakhstan\u2019s Rybakina recovered from 0-3 and two breaks down in the final set to beat Liudmila Samsonova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 before American Gauff swept aside Russian teenage qualifier Alina Korneeva, 6-3, 6-1.
\nRybakina will face four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, who eliminated home hero Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-4.
\nGauff reached the last eight in Canada for the first time since 2023 and next meets 14th-ranked Swiss Belinda Bencic, who won 6-4, 6-0 in 73 minutes over 20th-ranked Alexandra Eala, a Filipina who won her first WTA title last Monday in Washington.
\n\u201cMy main focus today was let me try and close it out,\u201d said Gauff, who has not dropped a set in Canada. \u201cProbably not the way I should be thinking but it worked today.
\n\u201cI\u2019m proud of how the last three matches have gone and just knowing if I have to go the distance I\u2019m ready, but obviously would prefer to cut it short if I can.\u201d
\nOsaka broke in the seventh game of each set to advance in 82 minutes.
\n\u201cIt was all pretty good for me,\u201d the 13th-ranked Osaka said. \u201cShe has a great attitude. She\u2019s consistent and she will fight. She\u2019s kind of like a bulldog.\u201d
\nThe Japanese star, who has never faced Rybakina, said sound groundstrokes were key.
\n\u201cWhen I feel comfortable or at least confident in myself knowing I can run things down, I loosen up a lot,\u201d Osaka said.
\n\u201cI was catching my service toss a couple times. Hopefully in the next match I don\u2019t do that as often.
\n\u201cI need to be confident in myself, execute what I can and at the end of the day just try my best and whatever happens happens.\u201d
\nBencic connected on 64.4% of her first serves and won 72.4% of those points in a 73-minute victory, her 10th win in a row over left-handed opponents.
\n\u201cI hate to play against lefties so I\u2019m surprised by this statistic,\u201d Bencic said. \u201cVery tricky.
\n\u201cMaybe helped me I played a lefty the round before against Taylor Townsend. I got used to the serve a little bit. I wish I was a lefty too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
She secured a tough 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Liudmila Samsonova TORONTO World number two Elena Rybakina survived a huge scare to battle into the Canadian Open quarter-finals on Sunday in Toronto while fourth-ranked Coco Gauff cruised through. Kazakhstan\u2019s Rybakina recovered from 0-3 and two breaks down in the final set to beat Liudmila Samsonova […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n