TORONTO, Canada, Aug 9, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Serena Williams shook off a slow
start Thursday to reach the WTA Toronto tournament quarter-finals and a
possible showdown with Naomi Osaka in a rematch of last year’s US Open final.
World number 10 Williams was broken twice and dropped the first three games
in 10 minutes only to win the next four games on the way to a 7-5, 6-4
victory over Russia’s 48th-ranked Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Williams, a 37-year-old American who will try for a record-tying 24th Grand
Slam singles title at the upcoming US Open, would face Osaka in the last
eight if the reigning Australian and US Open champion wins a later match
against Poland’s Iga Swiatek.
It would be the first match between Osaka and Williams since the Japanese
star defeated her childhood idol 6-2, 6-4 in last year’s US Open final, a
match marred by an on-court dispute between Williams and the umpire that led
to a game penalty against Williams.
Osaka was booed by some fans during the awards ceremony and later dubbed
what should have been her moment of glory “a little bittersweet.”
Alexandrova broke Williams — the 2001, 2011 and 2013 Canadian champion —
in the first and third games for a 3-0 edge only to have Williams roll
through the next four games.
They held from there until the final game of the first set, when the
Russian’s eighth double fault handed Williams the set after 46 minutes.
Alexandrova broke Williams again to open the second set, but the US star
pulled level in the sixth game and broke again in the 12th to advance after
91 minutes.
Karolina Pliskova kept the pressure on Osaka in the battle to take the
world number one ranking by reaching the quarter-finals.
The Czech third seed saw off Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit 6-3, 7-5 to set up a
last-eight clash with rising Canadian star Bianca Andreescu, who outlasted
fifth-seeded Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens 6-1, 6-7 (7/9), 6-4.
Pliskova, 27, must reach the semi-finals to have a chance of reclaiming the
world number one ranking.
But if Osaka makes the last-eight, then Pliskova would need to reach the
final to stay in contention.
French Open champion Ashleigh Barty’s stint as the world’s top-ranked
player was assured of ending after she was knocked out on Tuesday.
Japanese star Osaka, the reigning US and Australian Open champion, takes on
Polish teenager Iga Swiatek in her last-16 tie later on Thursday.
Defending champion and fourth seed Simona Halep of Romania, coming off a
Wimbledon title last month, beat Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2, 6-1 to
book a quarter-final against Czech qualifier Marie Bouzkova, who ousted
Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 6-2.