Swiatek squeezes past Garcia at China Open, Gauff extends winning streak
BEIJING (AP) — Second-seeded Iga Swiatek advanced to the semifinals of the China Open by defeating No.9 Caroline Garcia 6-7 (8), 7-6 (5), 6-1 in a tense match on Friday.
Garcia took the first set but Swiatek struck back early in the second, taking a 4-1 lead before Garcia rallied to lead 6-5.
With Swiatek serving to stay in the match, Garcia came within two points of closing out a straight-sets win. However, Swiatek delivered two big points, pushing the match into a second tiebreak, which she ultimately won.
Swiatek then powered through the decider to advance to her 11th semifinal of the season.
“For sure it was really intense,” Swiatek said. “We played really fast. There was no time sometimes to think or analyze. I’m happy I used my intuition a lot. In both of the first sets, every ball counted. I’m happy that in the third I could just go for it.”
Third-seeded Coco Gauff extended her winning streak to 16 matches, beating No.6 Maria Sakkari 6-2, 6-4 and setting up a blockbuster semifinal with Swiatek.
It’s the seventh semifinal of the year for the 19-year-old American, who hasn’t been beaten since a quarterfinal loss to Jessica Pegula in Montreal at the start of August.
Liudmila Samsonova continued her impressive run with a 6-3, 6-2 defeat of 13th-seeded Jelena Ostapenko.
Later Friday, top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka will play the fifth-seeded Elena Rybakina for the third time this year. They split the two finals they have contested this season at the Australian Open and Indian Wells, with the Belarusian winning the Grand Slam title in Melbourne.
SHANGHAI MASTERS
Third-seeded Holger Rune was humbled by 122nd-ranked Brendon Nakashima 6-0, 6-2 in the second round of the Shanghai Masters.
The 22-year-old American converted five of his 14 break points to claim a maiden victory over a top-10 player. Nakashima next plays Tomas Martin Etcheverry or local favorite Zhang Zhizhen.
Other players headed for the exit included 11th-seeded Alex de Minaur, who went down 6-3, 7-5 to 91st-ranked Fabian Marozsan, and 17th-seeded Lorenzo Musetti, who lost to qualifier Hsu Yu Hsiou 6-3, 6-4.
The fourteenth-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime was ousted by Martin Fucsovics 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-3 and Dusan Lajovic of Serbia was leading No.23-seeded Tallon Griekspoor 6-4, 3-2 when the Dutch player retired.
The No.8 Casper Ruud was one of the few seeds to advance. He beat Yoshihito Nishioka 7-5, 6-0. Next up for the Norwegian player is 29th-seeded Christopher Eubanks, who rallied to a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory against Yannick Hanfmann.
The 20th-seeded Francisco Cerundolo beat Mackenzie McDonald 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5).
The top-seeded Carlos Alcaraz and second-seeded Daniil Medvedev play their second-round matches on Saturday.
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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis