Canadian Open: Rybakina beats Kasatkina in marathon quarterfinals
Montreal (IANS). No. 3 seed Elena Rybakina stunned No. 10 seed Daria Kasatkina in a thrilling quarterfinal that lasted nearly three and a half hours at the Canadian Open.
No. 3 seed Rybakina advanced to the semifinals by saving a match point against No. 10 seed Daria Kasatkina during a marathon win late in the night.
Rybakina prevailed over Kasatkina 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(8) in their quarterfinal classic late Friday night after playing 3 hours and 27 minutes. The match ended just five minutes past three on Saturday morning.
On a day where four of the previous five matches were three-sets that lasted more than two hours, this final match of the day was the longest ever. It is currently one of the 10 longest matches of this season.
With this, Rybakina has now won all four of her WTA 1000 quarterfinals in 2023. She has won 22 matches at WTA 1000 events this year, more than any player in 2023.
The 24-year-old Rybakina is also the tour leader in hitting the most aces this season. She hit seven more aces against Kasatkina to bring her ace count to 370 on the year.
Rybakina and Kasatkina both broke serve 10 times in a close match, but it was Rybakina who advanced to the semifinals against No. 15 seed Lyudmila Samsonova. Samsonova has won both their previous encounters, including the one in Montreal two years ago.
