MONTREAL:World number two Elena\u00a0Rybakina\u00a0came from a set down to defeat four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka on Tuesday and reach the WTA Toronto Masters semi-finals, where she will face fourth-ranked Coco\u00a0Gauff.<\/p>\n
Rybakina, the reigning Australian Open champion from Kazakhstan, fired 13 aces in a 4-6, 7-6 (7\/5), 6-4 victory.<\/p>\n
“Super happy. It was a very difficult match,”\u00a0Rybakina\u00a0said after a tight battle lasting 2hr 33min.<\/p>\n
“In the first set (I made) a few mistakes, a poor start.<\/p>\n
“It was a really tough one but I’m glad I could turn it around, I don’t yet know how, but I think my serve helped me a little bit.”<\/p>\n
Gauff, a 22-year-old American, had a walkover into her first Canada semi-final when Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic withdrew with a hip injury.<\/p>\n
“I’m really sorry to not be able to compete,” Bencic said in a statement. “I tried everything possible to be ready. Looking forward to being back in Toronto next time.”<\/p>\n
Gauff, the 2023 US Open and 2025 French Open champion, defeated\u00a0Rybakina\u00a0in their only previous meeting, which came at Toronto in a 2022 third-round match.<\/p>\n
“She’s a fighter,”\u00a0Rybakina\u00a0said of\u00a0Gauff.<\/p>\n
“I definitely need to bring my energy and serve well.”<\/p>\n
Poland’s\u00a0Iga\u00a0Swiatek\u00a0and Ukraine’s\u00a0Elina\u00a0Svitolina meet in Wednesday’s other semi-final.<\/p>\n
Osaka and\u00a0Rybakina\u00a0staged a dramatic duel in their first ever meeting on tour.<\/p>\n
“We\u00a0practised\u00a0couple of times before so I more or less knew how the ball was going to come, what to expect,”\u00a0Rybakina\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
“In some moments my energy wasn’t there but I’m glad in the end it went my way.”<\/p>\n
– ‘Just keep going’ –<\/p>\n
Rybakina\u00a0double-faulted to hand Osaka a break in the opening game and the Asian star held serve from there to claim the first set in 42 minutes.<\/p>\n
The pair exchanged breaks of service twice in a drama-filled second set but in the tiebreak\u00a0Rybakina\u00a0never trailed and smashed a forehand winner to force a third set.<\/p>\n
“I was trying to stay close on the score, trying not to think if I make a mistake, just keep going,”\u00a0Rybakina\u00a0said.<\/p>\n
Osaka was denied on four break points in the sixth game as\u00a0Rybakina\u00a0held<\/p>\n
The Kazakh broke for a 4-3 lead as Osaka missed a forehand smash wide on game point, then sent forehands long and wide.<\/p>\n
Rybakina\u00a0sealed the match with a second-serve ace, winning all 18 of her first-serve points in the final set.<\/p>\n
World number 13 Osaka, who took a\u00a0break \u00a0has\u00a0not won a title since the 2021 Australian Open.<\/p>\n
Rybakina\u00a0is within touching distance of becoming world number one for the first time.<\/p>\n
If two-time Grand Slam champion wins the Toronto title she would move to just four ranking points behind\u00a0Aryna\u00a0Sabalenka, who lost in the last 16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MONTREAL:World number two Elena\u00a0Rybakina\u00a0came from a set down to defeat four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka on Tuesday and reach the WTA Toronto Masters semi-finals, where she will face fourth-ranked Coco\u00a0Gauff. Rybakina, the reigning Australian Open champion from Kazakhstan, fired 13 aces in a 4-6, 7-6 (7\/5), 6-4 victory. “Super happy. It was a very …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4857,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4855\/revisions\/4857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistantimesusa.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}