Quarterfinals start to refill at rain-delayed D.C. Open

It was transferring day for high seeds on the D.C. Open Thursday because the quarterfinals for each the boys’s and girls’s attracts started to refill earlier than late-afternoon storms halted play on the Rock Creek Park Tennis Center.

Seven of eight spots within the ladies’s quarterfinals have been claimed after high seed Jessica Pegula superior in her first match of the match, 6-3, 6-4 over Peyton Stearns. The essential draw win for the world No. 3 was her tenth in Washington, sixth most all-time amongst WTA gamers. Seeded No. 1 for the final two years, Pegula is bidding for her second Washington title and third of her profession. Her subsequent impediment is Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who’s enjoying a number of the greatest tennis of her profession after reaching the semifinals of Wimbledon.

The second Ukrainian within the quarters is Marta Kostyuk, who upset France’s Caroline Garcia 6-2, 6-3 after a listless efficiency by the No. 6 participant on the planet. The second-seeded Garcia’s groundstrokes have been missing, profitable solely 50.9% of her service factors (28-of-55) in comparison with Kostyuk’s 79%. The Thirtieth-ranked Kostyuk’s triumph is her second straight over a top-10 opponent after being winless in her earlier 14 tries. She’ll face defending champion Liudmila Samsonova in a match Friday.

On the boys’s facet, No. 5 seed Gregor Dimitrov superior to the quarterfinals in straight units, 6-4, 6-3, over Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori within the first match of the day. It’s the 32-year-old Bulgarian’s third win towards Ruusuvuori this 12 months, all on completely different surfaces, and his first journey again to the Washington quarterfinals in a decade. Thirteen-seed Ugo Humbert of France is subsequent for Dimitrov after he wanted solely 63 minutes to defeat Yosuke Watanuki 6-0, 6-2.

No. 16 seed J.J. Wolf held off fellow American Michael Mmoh in an entertaining match, 6-4, 7-6 (5). The pesky Mmoh had saved 11 first-set factors — seven on his serve — to get again on serve at 5-4, earlier than Wolf instantly broke him, profitable the following 4 factors and the set.

Mmoh would stay combative within the second, combating off a ridiculous 19-of-22 complete breakpoints for the match. In the second-set tiebreak, Mmoh fought again from two factors right down to stage it at 5-5, however double-faulted on the following level to permit Wolf to shut out the win on his serve.

“It was a it was a gritty performance for sure,” Wolf stated in an occasion with followers after the match. “Mike is a really tough competitor. And I had to stick in there today and really give it my best shot to get that one done.”

For Wolf, a mullet-sporting Cincinnati native and former Ohio State star, Washington is the fifth quarterfinal of 2022. Another win Friday would give him solely the second semifinal berth of his ATP Tour profession.

Wolf will face the winner of a suspended match between Svitolina’s husband, Frenchman Gael Monfils, and Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands, with Griekspoor main 6-4, 1-6, 1-0. Monfils is the one former D.C. champion (2016) remaining within the males’s draw.