MONTREAL (AP) \u2014 Two-time defending champion Jessica Pegula was eliminated in the third round of the National Bank Open, falling 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to Anastasija Sevastova on Friday.<\/p>\n
Sevastova, a 35-year-old from Latvia who was ranked 11th in 2018 but has fallen to 386th, broke the third-seeded Pegula six times on 10 chances.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomehow, I was down 2-0 in the second set and started to play better and better,\u201d Sevastova said. \u201cThird set, I played really good. \u201cJust trying to stay on the court as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the night session, Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek of Poland routed Eva Lys of Germany 6-2, 6-2. The second-seeded Swiatek advanced to face 16th-seeded Clara Tauson of Denmark, a 6-3, 6-0 winner over Ukraine\u2019s Yuliia Starodubtseva.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always fun here,\u201d Swiatek said. \u201cIt was a solid match so I\u2019m happy to have a chance to play another one here. The match was different from how we played each other last time. I just focused on myself and knew what my plan was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sevastova has played 24 WTA Tour-level matches in four years. She got a spot in the main draw with a protected ranking because of a knee injury. In March 2024, in her fourth tournament back from maternity leave, she tore her ACL at the ATX Open.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s tough, but I think I\u2019m a fighter, also on court,\u201d Sevastova said. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to give up. This was really about coming back and showing that you can do it after a torn ACL, after such a setback. It was like unfinished business.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sevastova is the lowest-ranked player to beat a top-10 player since Angelique Kerber edged Jelena Ostapenko last year at Indian Wells.<\/p>\n
The loss continued a poor run for the fourth-ranked Pegula, who won her opener in Montreal over Maria Sakkari of Greece, but exited Wimbledon and the D.C. Open after one match in July.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been great, to be honest,\u201d Pegula said. \u201cI don\u2019t really feel like I\u2019m playing great tennis. At times I am, but I feel very up and down, kind of sloppy, which I don\u2019t like. It really bothers me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sevastova will take on Naomi Osaka, who moved to the fourth round with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.<\/p>\n
Osaka, a former No. 1-ranked player from Japan, is playing her first tournament with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski, She had five aces and converted 6 of 9 break-point opportunities to win the match in 1 hour, 12 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe broke me a couple times, but she\u2019s a really good returner, so I can\u2019t take that personally,\u201d Osaka said. \u201cI went in there knowing she\u2019s a great player, and if I give her a chance she\u2019s going to hit a winner on me, so I just tried to keep my pace and stay as solid as I could.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fifth-seeded Amanda Anisimova of the United States routed Emma Raducanu of England 6-2, 6-1 at night. Anisimova will play 10th-seeded Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine, a 6-1, 6-1 winner over Anna Kalinskaya of Russia in the late match.<\/p>\n
Sixth-seeded Madison Keys beat fellow American Caty McNally 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday I did a good job of bouncing back after the first set,\u201d Keys said. \u201cLet go of the first set and move on. Happy I was able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MONTREAL (AP) \u2014 Two-time defending champion Jessica Pegula was eliminated in the third round of the National Bank…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":42328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-42327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}