Making her first appearance since winning Wimbledon 18 days before, No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland breezed past China’s Guo Hanyu 6-3, 6-1 on Wednesday to advance to the third round of the National Bank Open in Montreal.
Swiatek needed just 72 minutes to claim the victory as she won 60 percent of her service points and 64 percent of Guo’s service points. Swiatek will face Germany’s Eva Lys in the next round as Lys took down No. 27 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, 6-3, 6-4.
Japan’s Naomi Osaka pulled off the day’s biggest upset as she pulled off a 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-3 victory over 13th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova of Russia, Osaka fended off two match points during the second set to turn the tide in their match that lasted two hours and 37 minutes.
“She definitely came out really hard and for me, I was definitely overwhelmed. “I didn’t know if I should also be hitting winners. But after a while I just tried to keep the ball in court.”
No. 3 Jessica Pegula, No. 5 Amanda Anisimova, No. 6 Madison Keys, No. 11 Karolina Muchova of Czechia and No. 16 Clara Tauson all won in straight sets, but a total of seven seeded players lost in second-round action on Wednesday.
Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya rallied to defeat Belgium’s Elise Mertens 1-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2. Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva dropped Poland’s Magdalena Frech 6-1, 6-1. Poland’s Magda Linette, the No. 25 seed, lost to Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova by a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 count. Catherine McNally took out No. 31 Rebecca Sramkova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-2, while Great Britain’s Emma Raducanu handled No. 32 Peyton Stearns 6-2, 6-4.
Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic had the task of battling hometown favorite Eugenie Bouchard, but the No. 17 seed held on for a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victory over the 31-year-old Canadian.
No. 22 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia needed three sets to pull off a 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 win over Mexico’s Renata Zarazua. No. 28 McCartney Kessler rallied to defeat Australia’s Maya Joint 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
–Field Level Media
