It took more than nine hours in total, but No.1 Iga Swiatek outlasted Karolina Muchova to reach the quarterfinals in Montreal, while No.2 Aryna Sabalenka was among the players whose matches were postponed until Friday.
The outcome, however, was the same, with Swiatek winning 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 and advancing to the quarterfinals of the Omnium National Bank tournament in Montreal. As a result, Swiatek will remain No.1 when the new Hologic WTA Tour rankings come out on Monday; that’s 72 consecutive weeks and counting, moving her ahead of Caroline Wozniacki to sit at No.10 on the list of most weeks at No.1.
“You have to find energy even though we’ve been here since 9 a.m.,” Swiatek said in her on-court interview. “For sure, it was a pretty extraordinary day, and I don’t think I’ve had such a situation in my career so there is the opportunity to learn something new and see what I’m capable — even though we played this match like three times.”
And while Swiatek’s 2022 was one of the best seasons in WTA history, 2023 is beginning to resemble that breakthrough stanza. This was the 22-year-old’s 49th match-win of the season. Only one woman in the past four years has exceeded that number — Swiatek, last year, with 67. Previously, she had been level in that span with Anet.
Next up is qualifier Danielle Collins, who continued her resurgence in Montreal by tallying her fifth win of the week after defeating Leylah Fernandez 6-2, 6-3.
Swiatek lost just one game to Collins earlier this year in Doha, but the American beat her 6-4, 6-1 in the Australian Open semifinals last year.
American, champion in Washington, D.C. last week Coco Gauff, rolled past Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrouova 6-3, 6-0 in the third round of the Omnium Banque Nationale on Thursday night for her sixth straight victory.
Gauff wrapped up a 62-minute win at nearly 10:30 p.m. local time, more than seven hours after the match was scheduled to be played as a result of rain for much of the day in Montreal.
The No.6 seed will look to reach her first-ever semifinal in Canada against her doubles partner and fellow American, No.4 seed Jessica Pegula, up next.
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