Barty beats Kontaveit to reach quarters
cincinnati — Ashleigh Barty edged Anett Kontaveit 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 to reach the Western & Southern Open quarterfinals on Thursday.
The top-seeded Barty clinched it with a deep forehand winner. She raised her right fist in triumph after fighting off one match point and outlasting Kontaveit in 2 hours, 10 minutes.
Barty, the French Open champion and currently ranked second, can reclaim No. 1 by reaching the tournament final.
On the men’s side, qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka followed up his upset of sixth-seeded Kei Nishikori by defeating Alex De Minaur 7-5, 6-4.
On Wednesday, Barty overcame a slow start to defeat Maria Sharapova 6-4 6-1, while Simona Halep battled past Ekaterina Alexandrova 3-6 7-5 6-4 in the second round of the Cincinnati Masters on Wednesday.
World number one Naomi Osaka improved to 4-0 lifetime against Aliaksandra Sasnovich with a 7-6(3) 2-6 6-2 win. Third seeded Karolina Pliskova crushed lucky loser Wang Yafan 6-1 6-3 and Donna Vekic knocked out former champion Victoria Azarenka 6-2 7-5 to set up a showdown with Venus Williams on Thursday.
In the men’s section, unseeded German Jan-Lennard Struff resisted a Stefanos Tsitsipas fightback while Serbian teenager Miomir Kecmanovic beat fifth-seed Alexander Zverev as two of the bigger upsets on Wednesday.
Struff, who has yet to win an ATP singles title in his decadelong career, was on top for most of the match against the 21-year old Greek. He served for the match in the second set but Tsitsipas managed to stay alive by taking the set on a tiebreak.
However, the German refused to give up and sealed the 6-4 6-7(5) 7-6(6) victory to set up a third round meeting with ninthseed Daniil Medvedev, who beat France’s Benoit Paire 7-6(2) 6-1.
Struff’s compatriot Zverev was less consistent as he served a careerhigh 20 double faults in his 6-7(4) 6-2 6-4 defeat to the 19-year-old qualifier from Belgrade.—