Bencic and Osaka Reach Toronto Quarterfinals, Gauff and Rybakina Await
The WTA 1000 tournament in Toronto has its final quarterfinalists: Belinda Bencic and Naomi Osaka joined Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina after convincing wins in the round of 16.
The WTA 1000 tournament in Toronto has its final quarterfinalists: Belinda Bencic and Naomi Osaka joined Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina after convincing wins in the round of 16.
Switzerland's Belinda Bencic and Japan's Naomi Osaka are the last two players to secure their spots in the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 tournament in Toronto. Bencic dismantled Philippine representative Alexandra Eala in the round of 16, while Osaka halted home hope Leylah Fernandez.
Bencic, the 14th seed, played an almost flawless match against Alexandra Eala, the 20th seed who won her first WTA title last Monday in Washington. The Swiss won 6-4, 6-0 in just 73 minutes, not conceding a single game in the second set.
Her serving stats were impressive-Bencic landed 64.4 percent of her first serves and won 72.4 percent of points on them. This was her 10th consecutive victory against left-handed opponents, a statistic that even surprised the player herself. "I hate playing lefties, so I'm surprised by this stat," Bencic told Al Jazeera. "It's very tricky. Maybe it helped that I played a lefty in the previous round against Taylor Townsend. I got a bit used to the serve. I wish I were left-handed."
Naomi Osaka, the 13th seed and four-time Grand Slam champion, was too strong for home favorite Leylah Fernandez. The Japanese player won 6-4, 6-4 after 82 minutes, breaking her opponent's serve in the seventh game of both sets.
"It was all pretty good for me. She has a great attitude. She's consistent and she'll fight. She's like a bulldog," Osaka commented on Fernandez's game. The Japanese star also admitted to some technical difficulties during the match: "I was catching my serve a few times. Hopefully, in the next match, I won't do that as often. I need to be confident in myself, execute what I can, and at the end of the day, just give it my all, and whatever happens, happens."
In the quarterfinals, Bencic faces a tough task-American Coco Gauff, the fourth seed, who earlier easily defeated Russian teenage qualifier Alina Korneeva 6-3, 6-1. Gauff has not dropped a set in Toronto and has reached the last eight in Canada for the first time since 2023.
"My main focus today was 'I'll try to finish it,'" said Gauff. "That's probably not the way I should be thinking, but it worked today. I'm proud of how the last three matches have gone, and I just know that if I have to go the distance, I'm ready, but obviously I'd rather keep it short if I can."
Osaka will face second seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals for the first time in her career. Rybakina reached the last eight after a tough battle-she defeated Liudmila Samsonova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, despite trailing 0-3 and being down two breaks in the deciding set.
