MANILA – Alexandra Eala survived American Caty McNally, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, on Saturday to reach the fourth round of the WTA1000 Canadian Open in Toronto.
The win set up the 21-year-old Filipino against 12th seed Swiss Belinda Bencic, who pulled off a 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-4 victory over American Taylor Townsend.
Eala, who reached a career-best No. 20 in the WTA singles ranking after winning the Mubadala DC Open last week, defeated American Alycia Parks, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, in the second round.
Meanwhile, top seed Aryna Sabalenka downed Chinese Shuai Zhang, 6-3, 6-4, to advance against 16th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, who won over Australian Talia Gibson, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3.
No. 2 Elena Rybakina triumphed over American Ann Li, 6-2, 7-5, to forge a fourth-round duel with Ludmila Samsonova, who outlasted American Maya Joint, 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-2.
Other winners were No. 3 Jessica Pegula over Kamilla Rakhimova, 6-4, 6-0, and No. 4 Coco Gauff over Maria Sakkari, 6-1, 6-4.
No. 7 Iga Swiatek, No. 10 Mata Kostyuk, No. 11 Naomi Osaka, and No. 30 Canadian Leylah Fernandez also made it to the fourth round. (PNA)
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