Third-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan had to claw her back for a 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5), 6-3 two-day win over unseeded American Jennifer Brady — ranked 561 in the world — on Wednesday in Montreal.
Rybakina, who is ranked No. 4 in the world, earned her first career victory in Montreal.
Brady was leading 4-2 in the first-set tiebreak on Tuesday when the match was suspended by rain. Brady went on to win the set on Wednesday, but Rybakina bounced back and finished with 44 winners to win the last two sets and the match in 2 hours, 41 minutes.
Top-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland and No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula of the United States cruised into the next round with straight-set victories. Swiatek bounced Czech Karolina Pliskova 7-6 (6), 6-2, and Pegula ousted Kazakh Yulia Putintseva 6-4, 6-4.
“Well, for sure it’s nice to have some challenges and overcome them,” Swiatek said about her win. “It wasn’t an easy first round, but I’m happy that I stayed solid, and I could close it in the first set because after having — I played two weeks ago in Warsaw, but still, I changed continents.”
Sixth-seeded American Coco Gauff had no trouble with Great Britain’s Katie Boulter, winning 6-2, 6-2 in 73 minutes.
No. 10 seed Daria Kasatkina advanced with a 6-2, 7-5 decision over fellow Russia Anna Blinkova.
Swiss 12th seed Belinda Bencic needed three sets to knock off the United States’ Alycia Parks 6-3, 5-7, 6-4. No. 14 seed Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic defeated Romanian Sorana Cirstea 7-5, 6-4. No. 15 seed Liudmila Samsonova of Russia was a straight-sets winner over China’s Qinwen Zhang.
Ninth-seeded Czech Marketa Vondrousova beat Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 7-5.
Four matches were scheduled for later Wednesday night, with a seeded player featured in each one.
No. 11 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil was set to face Canada’s Leylah Fernandez, second-seeded Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka would play Croatian Petra Martic, No. 8 seed Maria Sakkari of Greece prepared for Danielle Collins of the U.S. and seventh-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic was to face Italian Camila Giorgi.
–Field Level Media
