Iga Swiatek has made fast work of qualifier Danielle Collins as she raced to a 6-1 6-0 victory to succeed in the Cincinnati Open third spherical as third seed Jessica Pegula survived a tricky opening match.
World No.1 Swiatek broke the 29-year-old Collins seven occasions, confronted solely two break factors and wrapped up a one-sided match in a tidy 59 minutes.
“I feel like I was really solid and I didn’t make a lot of unforced errors,” Swiatek stated in her on-court interview.
“I really like playing that way because it gives me confidence and I can be proactive from the beginning to the end so I am pretty proud of today.”
Swiatek raced out to 3-0 lead within the opener and, after each gamers swapped service breaks, closed out the set. It was extra one-way site visitors within the second set as a fully-focused Swiatek shifted into cruise management and barely broke a sweat.
Second seed Aryna Sabalenka fended off a third-set comeback try by American qualifier Ann Li to notch a 7-5 2-6 6-4 victory and arrange a gathering with Russia’s Daria Kasatkina.
After buying and selling the primary two units, the Belarusian appeared in management when she jumped out to a 5-1 lead within the decider however her 192nd-ranked opponent had different concepts, successful three straight video games to whittle the lead all the way down to a single sport.
Despite the rising stress the hard-hitting Sabalenka saved her cool, sealing the win with an unreturnable serve on match level to enhance to 42-9 on the yr.
Fourth seed Elena Rybakina additionally got here via a three-set slugfest to defeat Jelena Ostapenko 6-7 (8-6) 6-2 6-4 to succeed in the spherical of 16.
Rybakina crushed 11 aces to boost her season-leading tally to 392 and can subsequent face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini for a spot within the quarters.
Veteran American Venus Williams began sturdy towards Zheng Qinwen earlier than succumbing to a 1-6 6-2 6-1 defeat by the hands of the Chinese participant.
Williams, 43, acquired a wild card into the US Open earlier on Wednesday and might be competing on the yr’s ultimate main in New York for a record-extending twenty fourth time.
American teenager Coco Gauff, seeded seventh, breezed previous Egyptian Mayar Sherif 6-2 6-2, whereas earlier Pegula had her palms full in her first match since successful final week’s Canadian Open, by which she beat Swiatek within the semi-finals.
The American overcame a sluggish begin to safe a gutsy 6-7 (2-7) 6-2 6-3 win over Italian qualifier Martina Trevisan.
Pegula comfortably misplaced the first-set tie-break however confirmed her high quality within the second set earlier than racing out to a 3-0 lead within the decider en path to her twenty seventh hardcourt win this yr.
Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, the Czech tenth seed, beat Anastasia Potapova 6-4 6-2 and Russian 14th seed Daria Kasatkina overcame fortunate loser Varvara Gracheva 6-3 6-1.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
