Rybakina Tops Kasatkina in 3 AM Montreal End

By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Saturday August 12, 2023

World No.4 Elena Rybakina saved a match level to defeat Daria Kasatkina in a late night time battle that completed simply earlier than 3 AM on the Omnium Banque Nationale in Montreal.

The Kazakh held on, 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(8) to set a semifinal with Liudmila Samsonova of Russia. Rybakina’s victory took three hours and 27 minutes on an extended day in Montreal.

There was over 13 hours of tennis on a jam-packed day on Court Central that featured two three-hour epics and one other two contests that lasted nicely over two hours.

2022 Wimbledon champion Rybakina improves to 38-9 on the season, and 24-5 on onerous courts.

In a topsy-turvy affair that featured ten breaks of serve from every participant, Rybakina rebounded from a break down within the third set and saved a match level at 7-8 within the closing set tiebreak.

UNRÉAL 🌙

Just in need of 3am in Montréal after 3h27m of play, No.3 seed Elena Rybakina comes from a set all the way down to defeat Kasatkina 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(8) and attain the semifinals!#NBO23 pic.twitter.com/kuykyjYxHi

— wta (@WTA) August 12, 2023

Rybakina improves to 2-2 towards the 14th-ranked Russian–she has gained a tour-leading 14 tiebreaks in 2023 (14-2), together with 9 on the WTA 1000 stage.

Friday’s marathon order of play featured double responsibility from Samsonova and Belinda Bencic, who moved by way of their spherical of 16 clashes earlier within the day earlier than clashing within the quarterfinals. By the time the pair met to kick off the night time session in Montreal, the order of play was already method not on time.

Bencic, who struggled to get previous Petra Kvitova within the spherical of 16, was overpowered by Samsonova, who hit 30 winners to simply six for Bencic in a 6-4 6-4 victory.

Samsonova, who beat No.2-seeded Aryna Sabalenka earlier on Friday, reaches her first WTA 1000 semifinal.