Article Author:
Reuters
The biggest news at Wednesday's National Bank Open in Toronto was Serena Williams' loss in the second round, a day after she announced her plans to take a break from tennis to focus on her family. Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.
In a match that lasted 1 hour and 17 minutes, No. 12 seed Bencic defeated Williams in her sets 6-2, 6-4 in straight sets.
Williams started the match with an ace, but she was unable to keep up with Bencic for most of the match.
"I wish I could have played better," Williams said.
Williams has missed most of her past year with her foot injury, limiting her to just three appearances in the last 12 months.
After the game, Williams said to a packed stadium:
In Wednesday's other match, No. 1 seed Poland's Iga Swiatek made it to the next round, but No. 10 Coco Gauff beat her champion at Wimbledon, but she was 3. It took nearly an hour.
2nd seed Estonian Anna Her Kontaveit was also eliminated, while 4th seed Paula her Badsa (Spain) and 5th seed Oz her Jabbar (Tunisia) withdrew from their respective matches. and was defeated.
Gauff took 2 hours and 49 minutes to beat Elena of Kazakhstan in Round of 32.
Gauff squandered her points in her four matches in the second set, but defeated Ryvakina in the final third set. Gauff survived his 13th double fault in this win.
By contrast, Swiatek won 6-1, 6-2 in his 64th minute over Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic, who he beat 6-1, 6-2.
This is his second main draw appearance for Swiatek in Toronto. She advanced to her third round in her teens in 2019, then No. 2 seed Naomi Osaka.
"It really gave me extra motivation," he said Swiatek. “Even though I lost the match against Naomi, I just remember being so happy to be in such a close match. Kontaveit lost to Switzerland's Jil Teichmann 6-4 6-4 in 1 hour 27 minutes Kontaveit had chances but only converted 2 of his 8 break point chances.
Badsa lost 7-5, 1-0 when forced to retire against Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan. Jabbar also dropped the first set before losing 2-1 to China's Qinwen Zheng in the second.
Local favorite and No. 13 seed Leila Fernandez of Canada defeated Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia 7-4 in 1 hour and 50 minutes, defeating Spain 6-4 6-3. 6(4) lost 6-1, but late Wednesday night Canada's Bianca Andreescu beat France's Alizee Cornette 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to advance. Other seeded players included No. 7 Jessica Pegula, No. 8 Spain's Garbine Muguruza, No. 14 Czech Republic's Karolina Pliskova, and No. 15 Simona Halep of Romania Latvia. No. 16 Jelena Ostapenko lost to Alison Risk Amritraj 7-6(2), 0-6, 7-5
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