Swiatek cruises, Osaka battles in Montreal

Wimbledon cham­pion, Iga Swiatek, cruised, Naomi Osaka battled through, and Canadian Eugenie Bouchard called time on her WTA career with a gutsy second-round loss in Montreal on Wednesday.

There was no drama for Poland’s Swiatek, who breezed past Chinese qualifier Guo Hanyu 6-3, 6-1 in her first match since her crushing victory over Amanda Anisimova in the Wimbledon final.

Swiatek, seeded second, broke Guo’s serve six times to book her spot in the third round.

It was much harder going for Japan’s four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka, who saved two match points in a 4-6, 7-6 (8/6) 6-3 triumph over Liudmila Samsonova.

Osaka, now working with To­masz Wiktorowski after announc­ing on Monday she had split with coach Patrick Mouratoglou, surrendered early breaks in each of the first two sets.

Wimbledon quarterfinalist Samsonova served for the match at 5-4 in the second and led 40-15. The Russian fired a forehand long on her first match point and on her second a lackluster drop shot effort gave Osaka an opening and the Japanese star pounced.

Samsonova’s double fault on break point allowed Osaka to lev­el the set, and after storming back from 5-2 down in the tiebreaker to force a third set Osaka took control early, breaking Samsonova twice on the way to a 4-1 lead.

Jessica Pegula, the two-time defending champion and third seed, saved five set points in the opening set on the way to a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Maria Sakkari of Greece.

Australian Open champion Madison Keys, the sixth seed, opened her campaign with a 6-2, 6-1 victory over Laura Siege­mund, avenging a third-round loss to the German at Wimbledon.

Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic sent Bouchard into retirement with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victory but not before the Canadian thrilled her hometown fans by seizing an early break in the third set.–AFP

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