Saville upsets top seed Pegula in Washington
AUSTRALIAN Daria Saville has flown the flag for the nation across the tennis globe by defeating top seed Jessica Pegula in the WTA 250 event in Washington. Saville was one of only two Australians to win on the day – while a massive seven lost – and advanced through to the quarter finals of that event in the process. Saville defeated the American on her home court, 7-5 6-4 in a tight 98-minute match.
In an evenly matched battle, both Saville and Pegula served five aces, with Saville serving three more double faults (7-4), but made up for it with a far higher serving percentage (66 to 45 per cent). Pegular was impressive off her first serve only dropping five points (81 per cent) while Saville recorded 66 per cent, but the American struggled off her second serve with a drop down to 50 per cent. The Australian created the six break opportunities to break three times, while Pegula could only break once despite nine chances, which helped the Australian secure the 7-5 6-4 victory and move through to the quarter finals.
Saville will now take on Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino in the quarter finals after Marino defeated German Andrea Petkovic in three sets, in a half of the draw that has really opened up. Russian Anna Kalinskaya defeated third seed Simona Halep after the Romanian was forced to retire after the second game of the second set, while sixth seed Kaia Kanepi came back from a set down to knock off China’s Lin Zhu, 4-6 6-4 6-4.
Focusing in on the Australians across the tennis world, Nick Kyrgios was the only other one to win through to the next stage overnight, defeating American 14th seed Tommy Paul in the ATP 500 event in Washington, 6-3 6-4. In the same event Alex de Minaur ran out of gas against Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka after the Australian won in Atlanta, going down in three sets in a shock loss, 3-6 7-6 6-2. Alexei Popyrin also lost, going down to third seed Taylor Fritz. Meanwhile in Los Cabos, it was a horror day for the Australians with qualifiers Rinky Hijikata and Max Purcell joining Jordan Thompson, Jason Kubler and seventh seed Thanasi Kokkinakis as losers in the ATP 250 event.
All the results from across the globe are below.
AROUND THE TOUR RESULTS:
Washington – ATP 500 | Hard
Round of 32:
Emil Ruusuvuori (FIN) defeated [2] Hubert Hurkacz (POL) 6-4 7-6
[3] Taylor Fritz (USA) defeated Alexei Popyrin (AUS) 6-4 6-3
[4] Reilly Opelka (USA) defeated Denis Kudla (USA) 6-7 6-4 6-4
[5] Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) defeated Adrian Mannarino (FRA) 6-1 3-6 7-5
[WC] J.J. Wolf (USA) defeated [6] Denis Shapovalov (CAN) 6-2 6-7 6-3
[9] Holger Vitus Nodskov Rune (DEN) defeated Benoit Paire (FRA) 6-3 6-2
[10] Frances Tiafoe (USA) defeated [WC] Christopher Eubanks (USA) 6-3 7-6
Yoshihito Nishioka (JPN) defeated [11] Alex de Minaur (AUS) 3-6 7-6 6-2
Sebastian Korda (USA) defeated [12] Sebastian Baez (ARG) 6-1 6-4
[13] Maxime Cressy (USA) defeated Jack Sock (USA) 4-6 6-4 6-0
Nick Kyrgios (AUS) defeated [14] Tommy Paul (USA) 6-3 6-4
Mikael Ymer (SWE) defeated [15] Aslan Karatsev (RUS) 6-4 3-6 6-4
Los Cabos – ATP 250 | Hard
Round of 16:
[1] Daniil Medvedev (RUS) defeated [Q] Rinky Hijikata (AUS) 6-4 6-3
[2] Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN) defeated [WC] Alex Hernandez (MEX) 6-3 7-5
[3] Cameron Norrie (GBR) defeated Chun-Hsin Tseng (TAI) 6-3 6-0
[4] Miomir Kecmanovic (SRB) defeated Jordan Thompson (AUS) 6-4 6-2
[6] Brandon Nakashima (USA) defeated [Q] Max Purcell (AUS) 6-3 6-3
Steve Johnson (USA) defeated [7] Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS) 6-7 6-4 6-4
Radu Albot (ROU) defeated Jason Kubler (AUS) 6-4 6-2
Ricardas Berankis (LTU) defeated Facundo Bagnis (ARG) 7-6 6-3
San Jose – WTA 500 | Hard
Round of 16:
[2] Paula Badosa (ESP) defeated [Q] Elizabeth Mandlik (USA) 6-2 5-7 7-6
[3] Ons Jabeur (TUN) defeated Madison Keys (USA) 7-5 6-1
[7] Daria Kasatkina (RUS) defeated [Q] Taylor Townsend (USA) 6-4 6-0
Amanda Anisimova (USA) defeated [8] Karolina Pliskova (CZE) 3-6 7-5 6-1
Claire Liu (USA) defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia (BA) 6-2 7-5
Washington – WTA 250 | Hard
Round of 16:
Daria Saville (AUS) defeated [1] Jessica Pegula (USA) 7-5 6-4
Anna Kalinskaya (RUS) defeated [3] Simona Halep (ROU) 7-5 2-0 RET
[6] Kaia Kanepi (EST) defeated Lin Zhu (CHN) 4-6 6-4 6-4
[Q] Rebecca Marino (CAN) defeated Andrea Petkovic (GER) 6-3 3-6 6-1
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