{"id":72561,"date":"2026-08-12T03:05:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T03:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/72561\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T03:05:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T03:05:15","slug":"rybakina-defeats-osaka-to-secure-last-semi-final-berth-at-nbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/72561\/","title":{"rendered":"Rybakina defeats Osaka to secure last semi-final berth at NBO"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Japan’s Naomi Osaka hits a return to Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina during National Bank Open tennis action in Toronto on Tuesday.Chris Young\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Elena Rybakina defeated Naomi Osaka 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Tuesday at the National Bank Open to earn the last semi-final berth at the WTA Tour event. <\/p>\n

The second seed from Kazakhstan broke Osaka\u2019s serve at 3-3 in the deciding set before completing the win in two hours 33 minutes at Sobeys Stadium. <\/p>\n

The match started earlier than planned after Switzerland\u2019s Belinda Bencic pulled out of the tournament due to a hip injury. Fourth-seeded Coco Gauff advanced to the semi-finals via walkover. <\/p>\n

Organizers confirmed the withdrawal shortly before their match was scheduled to begin. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am really sorry to not be able to compete tonight,\u201d Bencic said in a statement. \u201cThis is an amazing tournament and I was really looking forward to playing in front of the great fans here in Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried everything possible to be ready for tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ninth-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and seventh-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland won their quarter-final matches on Monday.<\/p>\n

The 12th-seeded Bencic, who won here in 2015, played with significant taping around her left thigh in a fourth-round win over Alexandra Eala of the Philippines on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Semi-final matches at the US$7.43-million tournament were set for Wednesday. The final was scheduled for Thursday.<\/p>\n

The 11th-seeded Osaka broke serve in the match\u2019s opening game and was two points away from victory in the second-set tiebreaker before Rybakina pulled even.<\/p>\n

At 3-2 in the decider, Osaka had four breakpoint opportunities to pad her lead but Rybakina held serve to tie it. <\/p>\n

Osaka was broken after that and Rybakina would close out the match with her 13th ace to secure her third WTA 1000 semi-final appearance of the season.<\/p>\n

Osaka reached the final last year before falling to Canada\u2019s Victoria Mboko, who was unable to defend her title due to a knee injury.<\/p>\n

In doubles semi-final play, Italy\u2019s Sara Errani and American Nicole Melichar-Martinez beat Taiwan\u2019s Su-Wei Hsieh and Latvia\u2019s Jelena Ostapenko 6-1, 4-6, 10-8.<\/p>\n

In quarter-final action, Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia and Britain\u2019s Olivia Nicholls posted a 7-5, 6-4 win over Belgium\u2019s Elise Mertens and Russia\u2019s Diana Shnaider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Japan’s Naomi Osaka hits a return to Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina during National Bank…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[22309,22300,22310,212,22294,22311,1368,22293,22305,22306,22302,22295,22292,191,251,1729,22304,22299,22321,22296,22297,2752,8,22301,500,2164,22312,22298,22316,22317,22319,22314,22318,16714,85,22315,1258,14783,22308,180,22307,22313,3631,907,501,22303,8559,213,22320],"class_list":["post-72561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-osaka","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-japan","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-osaka","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}