Anastasija Sevastova stunned two-time defending champion Jessica Pegula\u00a03-6, 6-4, 6-1 on Friday to book a fourth-round clash with Naomi Osaka at the WTA Canadian Open.<\/p>\n
Sevastova, a former world No. 11 now ranked 386th, snapped fourth-ranked Pegula’s 11-match WTA Canada win streak, the longest since Serena Williams reeled off 14 consecutive wins in 2011, 2013 and 2014.<\/p>\n
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She will try to extend her Montreal run in a round of 16 meeting with Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion from Japan who ousted another Latvian, 22nd seed Jelena Ostapenko, 6-2, 6-4.<\/p>\n
“Somehow, I was down 2-0 in the second set and started to play better and better,” Sevastova said. “Third set I played really good.<\/p>\n
“Just trying to stay on the court as long as possible,” added Sevastova, who has dealt with injury since returning from maternity leave in February 2024.<\/p>\n
In the night session, second-seeded Iga Swiatek — playing her first tournament since winning Wimbledon — raced into the fourth round with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Germany’s Eva Lys.<\/p>\n
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Swiatek next faces Denmark’s Clara Tauson, who beat Yuliia Starodubtseva 6-3, 6-0.<\/p>\n
Pegula, last year’s US Open runner-up in her best Slam showing, was the first woman to win back to back Canadian Open titles since Martina Hingis in 1999-2000.<\/p>\n
But she has struggled in recent months, dropping her openers at Wimbledon and at Washington last week.<\/p>\n
The American broke to open the match and again at love to claim the first set.<\/p>\n
But she couldn’t maintain an early break in the second, with Sevastova breaking for a 5-4 lead and denying Pegula on three break chances before holding in the final game to force a third set in which she seized a 4-1 lead on the way to victory.<\/p>\n
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– ‘Weird match’ –<\/p>\n
“It was a weird match for me,” Pegula said. “I felt like I had total control and then I just played a couple of terrible games for, like, three games.<\/p>\n
“That totally flipped the momentum of the match, and I went from being up a set and 2-0 to being down very quickly.<\/p>\n
“I don’t really feel like I’m playing great tennis,” Pegula admitted. “At times I am, but I feel very up and down, kind of sloppy, which I don’t like. I’ve got to figure it out.”<\/p>\n
Osaka, twice a winner at both the US and Australian Opens,\u00a0is one match away from her first quarter-final run at either a Grand Slam or WTA 1000 event since she returned from maternity leave at the start of 2024.<\/p>\n
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Now ranked 49th, Osaka broke on a double fault to capture the first set in 30 minutes and raced to a 3-1 lead in the second.<\/p>\n
They exchanged breaks before Osaka served for the match with a 5-3 lead, but Ostapenko saved a match point on a forehand crosscourt winner and broke when Osaka sent a forehand beyond the baseline.<\/p>\n
The Japanese star responded by breaking Ostapenko at love in the final game.<\/p>\n
“I went in there knowing she’s a great player and if I give her a chance she’s going to hit a winner on me, so I just tried to keep my pace and stay as solid as I could,” Osaka said.<\/p>\n
Australian Open champion Madison Keys, seeded sixth, beat fellow American Caty McNally 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 and will next meet Karolina Muchova, a 6-7 (2\/7), 6-2, 6-3 winner over Belinda Bencic.<\/p>\n
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Fifth-seeded American Amanda Anisimova, regrouping this week after a crushing 6-0, 6-0 loss to Swiatek in the Wimbledon final, swept past Britain’s Emma Raducanu 6-2, 6-1.<\/p>\n
She lined up a meeting with Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who beat Russian Anna Kalinskaya 6-1, 6-1.<\/p>\n
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