In an emotional night in Montreal, Clara Tauson of Denmark achieved a surprising victory by defeating the second seed and Wimbledon champion, Iga Swiatek of Poland, with a score of 7-6 (1), 6-3, securing her place in the quarterfinals of the National Bank Open. Tauson, who is ranked 16th in this hard-court tournament that concludes on Thursday, avenged her loss to Swiatek at Wimbledon, preparing for a Tuesday match against sixth seed and Australian Open winner Madison Keys of the United States.
Tauson, who won her only tour title in New Zealand in January, defeating Naomi Osaka of Japan, also present in the Montreal quarterfinals, in the final. For her part, Keys defeated Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic, eleventh seed, with a score of 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the afternoon session, marked by the wind. Clara is a fantastic ball striker. She has a great serve. She has a lot of power on both sides. She covers the court pretty well, so I feel like it’s one of those matches where you have to temper a little bit and not go for things too quickly. Osaka also advanced in the afternoon, defeating Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia with a resounding 6-1, 6-0 in just 49 minutes, the second fastest victory of her career. Osaka had a 42-minute victory in a 2016 event in Brazil. Osaka reached the quarterfinals of a WTA 1000 or Grand Slam event for the first time in 19 months. On Tuesday, she will face Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, tenth seed, who won 6-4, 6-1 against Amanda Anisimova of the United States, fifth seed. In Monday night’s quarterfinals, 18-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko will face Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain, while Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine will take on ninth-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan.I think, obviously, getting a win against her after losing at Wimbledon a couple of weeks ago is obviously good, because I didn’t feel very good in that match, and I felt like I was playing good tennis at Wimbledon. So I felt like if I could keep it up, I thought I had a chance.
Clara Tauson
