Fourth-seeded Coco Gauff moved into the semifinals of the National Bank Open when 12th-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland withdrew from the Toronto tournament on Tuesday due to a hip injury.
Gauff’s semifinal opponent will be second-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, who rallied past 11th-seeded Naomi Osaka of Japan 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
Bencic said in a statement, “I am really sorry to not be able to compete tonight. This is (an) amazing tournament, and I was really looking forward to playing in front of the great fans here in Toronto. I tried everything possible to be ready for tonight. Looking forward to being back in Toronto next time.”
The ailment bothered Bencic in the lead-up to the event, but she still won three matches in Toronto. In the fourth round, she eliminated 25th-seeded Alexandra Eala of the Philippines, who was coming off claiming her first WTA Tour title in Washington.
Gauff is through to her fifth individual semifinal of the year. She lost in the championship match at both Miami and Rome, and she fell in the semifinals at Wimbledon and Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Rybakina advanced thanks in part to a 15-3 edge in aces.
The first key sequence in the comeback came when Osaka couldn’t hold a 4-2 lead in the second set. Rybakina won the next three games and eventually leveled the match in a tiebreaker.
In the middle of the third set, Osaka failed to take advantage of four break points and then Rybakina broke serve in the ensuing game (the lone break of the set) for a 4-3 lead.
“I’m very happy,” Rybakina said in her postmatch interview on court. “I think in some moments of course you can get lucky and it’s not always good to be down and chase. So I’m glad that I have another opportunity, but definitely each match I play, I need to try to do better and better.
“(Wednesday) is going to be another very difficult match, and now my thoughts are just to recover and try to enjoy.”
The only matchup between Rybakina and Gauff came in the round of 32 at Toronto in 2022, when Gauff eked out a 6-4, 6-7 (8), 7-6 (3) victory.
In the other semifinal, seventh-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland will face off with ninth-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine. Swiatek has a 4-3 lead in their head-to-head history, but Svitolina has won both of their matchups this year.
–Field Level Media
