World number two Elena Rybakina came from a set down to defeat four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka on Tuesday and reach the WTA Toronto Masters tennis semifinals, where she will face fourth-ranked Coco Gauff.<\/p>\n
Rybakina, the reigning Australian Open champion from Kazakhstan, fired 13 aces in a 4-6 7-6 (7\/5) 6-4 victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuper happy. It was a very difficult match,\u201d Rybakina said after a tight battle lasting two hours and 33 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the first set (I made) a few mistakes, a poor start.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a really tough one, but I\u2019m glad I could turn it around; I don\u2019t yet know how, but I think my serve helped me a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gauff, the 22-year-old American, had a walkover into her first Canada semifinal when Switzerland\u2019s Belinda Bencic withdrew with a hip injury.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m really sorry not to be able to compete,\u201d Bencic said in a statement. \u201cI tried everything possible to be ready. Looking forward to being back in Toronto next time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gauff, the 2023 US Open and 2025 French Open champion, defeated Rybakina in their only previous meeting, a 2022 third-round match in Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a fighter,\u201d Rybakina said of Gauff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely need to bring my energy and serve well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Poland\u2019s Iga Swiatek and Ukraine\u2019s Elina Svitolina meet in the other semifinal.<\/p>\n
Osaka and Rybakina staged a dramatic duel in their first-ever meeting on tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe practised a couple of times before so I more or less knew how the ball was going to come, what to expect,\u201d Rybakina said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn some moments my energy wasn\u2019t there, but I\u2019m glad in the end it went my way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rybakina double-faulted to hand Osaka a break in the opening game and the Asian star held serve from there to claim the first set in 42 minutes.<\/p>\n
The pair exchanged breaks of service twice in a drama-filled second set, but in the tiebreak Rybakina never trailed and smashed a forehand winner to force a third set.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying to stay close on the score, trying not to think if I make a mistake, just keep going,\u201d Rybakina said.<\/p>\n
Osaka was denied on four break points in the sixth game as Rybakina held<\/p>\n
The Kazakh broke for a 4-3 lead as Osaka missed a forehand smash wide on game point, then sent forehands long and wide.<\/p>\n
Rybakina sealed the match with a second-serve ace, winning all 18 of her first-serve points in the final set.<\/p>\n
World number 13 Osaka, who took a break, has not won a title since the 2021 Australian Open.<\/p>\n
Rybakina is within touching distance of becoming world number one for the first time.<\/p>\n
If the two-time Grand Slam champion wins the Toronto title, she would move to just four ranking points behind Aryna Sabalenka, who lost in the last 16. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n
The Herald<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World number two Elena Rybakina came from a set down to defeat four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[8065,8064,8879,25584,8066,8,4469,85,25577,46936,25567,46937],"class_list":["post-72979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-osaka","tag-coco-gauff","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-elina-svitolina","tag-grand-slam-champions","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-japan","tag-naomi-osaka","tag-osaka","tag-tennis-rankings","tag-toronto-masters","tag-womens-tennis","tag-wta-semi-finals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72979","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=72979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}