SAN DIEGO – Aryna Sabalenka, Madison Keys and Paula Badosa helped to improve their qualifying chances by garnering second-round victories at the San Diego Open.
Sixth-seeded Coco Gauff needed 2½ hours to defeat Canada’s Bianca Andreescu and advance to the quarter-finals of the San Diego Open.
Gauff overcame six double faults to defeat Andreescu 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
Gauff will face No. 1 seed Iga Swiatek, the Polish player who also needed three sets to dispatch China’s Qinwen Zheng 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.
Fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula defeated Coco Vandeweghe 6-3, 6-1, Madison Keys upended No. 8 Daria Kasatkina of Russia 6-4, 6-3, and Danielle Collins breezed past Italy’s Martina Trevisan 6-2, 6-4.
Aryna Sabalenka moved one step closer to potentially winning her first title of the year, prevailing in a 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 comeback over Sloane Stephens to reach the quarter-finals of the San Diego Open.
No.3 seed Sabalenka stormed back from a first-set rout to win in a smidge over 2 hours and maintain her undefeated record against Stephens. Sabalenka is now 3-0 over 2017 US Open champion Stephens, with all of those wins going to a decisive third set.
Sabalenka started the week as No.7 in the Race to the WTA Finals, and a deep run in San Diego could move her further up the ladder as she seeks a second consecutive appearance at the prestigious year-ending championship.
In her first match since making her second straight US Open semi-final (following a first-round bye this week), Sabalenka hit 23 winners to Stephens’ 15.
After splitting the first two sets, Sabalenka took charge in the decider by slamming a return winner to break Stephens at love for 4-2. Sabalenka fell behind 0-40 in the very next game, but she deployed aggressive shots, especially with the serve, to reel off five points in a row and consolidate for 5-2.
Sabalenka broke Stephens for the sixth time in the following game to wrap up the win, lining up a meeting with former Top 20 player Donna Vekic in the quarter-finals. Vekic, who qualified for the main draw this week, has beaten Sabalenka in four of their five meetings.
Two other players with designs on spots at the WTA Finals faced each other in the second round, and it was Madison Keys who reached the San Diego quarter-finals by taking down No.8 seed Daria Kasatkina 6-4, 6-3 and notching the 250th tour-level win of her career.
Keys, No.13 in the Race to the Finals coming into this week, battled back from 4-0 down in the opening set before clinching victory in 1 hour and 27 minutes. Kasatkina is No.6 in the Race to the Finals but will have to wait a bit longer before her fate is determined.
“I knew that today would be really difficult against Dasha, she’s obviously had a really great season so far and has played some really good tennis,” Keys said. “I’m really glad I was able to get back in that first set and be able to ride that momentum.”
Keys had a 7-0 lead in her head-to-head with Kasatkina at the start of the year, but Kasatkina finally got a win on the board in their rivalry in their lone previous match this season, at Melbourne Summer Set 2.
However, the pendulum swung back Keys’ way, as she notched exactly 50 percent of points returning the Kasatkina first serve en route to the win.
