Japan’s Naomi Osaka roared into her first quarterfinal in 19 months with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova in National Bank Open play on Sunday afternoon in Montreal.
The unseeded Osaka, who knocked off 14th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova of Russia and No. 22 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia just to reach the fourth round, needed just 49 minutes to polish off the unseeded Sevastova. Osaka’s fastest victory of her career came in 2016 in Brazil, where she dispatched Ana Sofia Sanchez 6-1, 6-1.
“I had a solid plan coming in here,” Osaka said on Sunday, “and it happened to work out very well.”
The former world No. 1 registered five aces to Sevastova’s none and converted all five of her break points to claim her first quarterfinal berth in a WTA 1000-level or Grand Slam tournament since Doha in February 2024. She will face the winner of Sunday night’s match between No. 5 Amanda Amisinova and No. 10 Elinia Svitolina of Ukraine.
Denmark’s Clara Tauson, the 16th seed, knocked out second-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland by a 7-6 (1), 6-3 count to reverse the results of their meeting last month at Wimbledon, when Swiatek won 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the quarterfinals on her way to the title.
Tauson, 22, saved seven of nine break-point opportunities and converted three of her five chances. Swiatek, who had won nine straight singles matches, had slightly more aces (8-6) and double faults (5-4).
Tauson will face sixth-seeded Madison Keys, who secured a spot in the quarterfinals with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over 11th-seeded Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Keys needed two hours, 20 minutes to prevail as she fought off two match points with Muchova holding a 5-4 lead in the third set. Keys then broke Muchova at 5-5 with a beautiful passing shot.
“I’m really happy to get that win,” Keys said.
–Field Level Media
