\n See draw<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
Kazakh second seed Elena Rybakina beat Naomi Osaka, the No. 11 seed from Japan, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 to reach the semi-finals of the National Bank Open on Tuesday night, overturning a set and a break down before saving four break points from 2-3, 0-40 down in the decider.<\/p>\n
Rybakina, ranked No. 2, will next face American Coco Gauff, the No. 4 seed, who didn\u2019t have to play to qualify, Bencic being injured.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying just to fight,\u201d she said afterward. \u201cThis first game of the match was really tough because it cost me the set. In the second I was just trying to stay closer to the score, even if I\u2019m losing. Just fight. I\u2019m super happy I won this match. Thank you so much for coming and supporting.\u201d<\/p>\n
She credited Osaka\u2019s serve for making the contest as tight as it was. \u201cIt\u2019s rare when you don\u2019t play some players for so many years you\u2019re on tour. She\u2019s a great champion, she\u2019s a fighter. We practiced a couple of times. Her ball is coming quite heavy, she can serve really well. The serve was really important today. I\u2019m glad it went my way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The win extended Rybakina\u2019s record on hard courts this season to 25-5 and sent her into her 14th career WTA 1000 semi-final, her third of the season and her third in Canada, matching last year\u2019s run to the Toronto final. It was also her 38th win of 2026.<\/p>\n
Gauff next<\/p>\n
The semi-final against Gauff will be just the second meeting between the two, and the first since Gauff won their only previous match 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 in the second round in Toronto back in 2022, a near-three-hour battle. \u201cWe practiced quite a lot on the tournaments. We know each other quite well, even though we only played once,\u201d Rybakina said. \u201cI think it was here in Toronto many years ago. She\u2019s a fighter. I definitely need to bring my energy, serve well. I think right now it\u2019s really important to recover and somehow be fresh for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked by Tennis Channel whether the win put the world No. 1 ranking on her mind, Rybakina brushed the question aside. \u201cNo, you guys are asking me all the time. Only when you ask, I have to think about it. No. I\u2019m just staying in the present, trying to focus on a match at a time. Not looking at the ranking, not following. For me it\u2019s just important to go match by match and hopefully win titles.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"National Bank Open presented by Rogers \u2022Quarter-final \u2022 Completed See draw Kazakh second seed Elena Rybakina beat Naomi…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":855111,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-855110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855110","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=855110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}