Tauson seemed to relish the opportunity <\/a>of facing Madison Keys after her straight-set win against Iga Swiatek at IGA Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cI think it’s really important to get these kinds of matches on this high level, especially back-to-back,\u201d said the 22-year-old. \u201cThen you can really see if you can maintain the level.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I showed this year that I can maintain the level, but obviously it’s going to be a super tough match against Madison. She’s playing some great tennis. Yeah, she always has great fire.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps the most notable demonstration of Tauson\u2019s ability to back up wins came in Dubai in February.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After upsetting World no. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, Tauson posted two more victories to make the final of the WTA 1000 event.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She hasn\u2019t dropped a set through three matches in Montreal, saving 11 of 15 break points and tallying a healthy 75 percent of points won behind her first serve.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The world no. 19 possesses similarly explosive power to her opponent \u2014 especially on the forehand \u2014 but as Keys pointed out, there\u2019s more to her game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cClara is I think a fantastic ball striker,\u201d said Keys, a finalist in Montreal in 2016. \u201cShe\u2019s got a big serve, got a lot of power on both sides. I think she actually covers the court quite well on top of things.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s one of those matches where you kind of have to temper a little bit and not go for things too quickly but at the same time you want to be on offence as quickly as possible.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know if she\u2019s on her front foot, then you are usually behind in the point and it\u2019s really hard to get back to neutral.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 30-year-old discovered that first-hand in Auckland in January, losing to Tauson in straight sets in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
No one has won more matches from a set down on the women\u2019s tour than Keys this year (9).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The duo kicks off singles play at 6 p.m.
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Naomi Osaka vs. Elina Svitolina: Osaka leads 4-3<\/p>\n
You could excuse Naomi Osaka for thinking ahead and thinking big. She has, after all, landed four Grand Slam titles. But Osaka is fully focusing on the short term.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, definitely, of course I would want to win Slams, of course I would want to be in the Top 10, but I think I need to pace myself and go for the mini goals, and they’ll eventually turn into the big goals,\u201d Osaka said. \u201cYeah, I think being in the quarterfinals here is a step to hopefully getting to the semis and the finals, so I’ll try to treat it more like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not as many wins in the last few years might have prompted a change in mindset. Her last top-tier title, for example, came at the 2021 Australian Open and Osaka \u2014 who took a mental health break and later became a mom \u2014 dropped outside the Top 800 in the rankings early last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Like Keys, the world no. 49 saved two match points to get to the quarter-finals. In her case, they came on the (big) serve of Liudmila Samsonova in the second round.\u00a0Osaka, has prevailed in straight sets<\/a> in her last two matches.\u00a0<\/p>\nSvitolina, meanwhile, has quietly \u2014 and efficiently \u2014 advanced. The 13th-ranked Ukrainian, like Tauson, hasn\u2019t conceded a set.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her scalps in the last two rounds came against Wimbledon finalist Amanda Anisimova and Washington finalist Anna Kalinskaya.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Svitolina has saved a combined 11 of 12 break points and won around 70 percent of her opponents\u2019 second serve points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Osaka and Svitolina follow Keys and Tauson on Centre Court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Photo: Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric C\u00f4t\u00e9<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Clara Tauson got her first win against Iga Swiatek on Sunday at the National Bank Open presented by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-48422","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\/48422","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=48422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}