Sevastova Upsets Pegula; Swiatek Advances in Canadian Open

Montreal, Canada — Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia shocked fans by defeating two-time defending champion Jessica Pegula of the United States, reaching the fourth round of the WTA Canadian Open on Friday.

Sevastova, who is currently ranked 386th, won the match with scores of 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. This victory ended Pegula’s impressive 11-match winning streak at the event, the longest since Serena Williams achieved 14 consecutive wins from 2011 to 2014.

“Somehow, I was down 2-0 in the second set and started to play better and better,” Sevastova said. “In the third set, I played really good.” Sevastova, who recently returned from maternity leave, is looking to extend her run as she prepares to face Naomi Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion.

Meanwhile, second-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland advanced to the fourth round after a commanding 6-2, 6-2 victory over Germany’s Eva Lys. This match marked Swiatek’s first tournament since her Wimbledon triumph.

Swiatek’s next opponent will be Denmark’s Clara Tauson, who defeated Yuliia Starodubtseva 6-3, 6-0 in her third-round match.

Pegula, last year’s US Open runner-up, had been the first woman to claim back-to-back Canadian Open titles since Martina Hingis in 1999-2000. However, following recent struggles, including first-round exits at Wimbledon and Washington, she admitted to feeling inconsistent during her matches.

<p“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. That totally flipped the momentum of the match.”

Naomi Osaka, who is also seeking her first quarter-final run since returning from maternity leave, faced Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia in the third round, emerging victorious with a 6-3, 6-4 score. Osaka noted the challenge of playing against a strong opponent, stating, “I went in there knowing she’s a great player.”

In the night session, sixth-seeded Madison Keys defeated Caty McNally of the U.S. with a score of 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. Keys will next meet Karolina Muchova, who came from behind to beat Belinda Bencic.

Also, fifth-seeded Amanda Anisimova bounced back from a difficult loss in the Wimbledon final to Swiatek, defeating Britain’s Emma Raducanu 6-2, 6-1. She is set for a meeting with Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who triumphed over Anna Kalinskaya.