Australian Daria Saville has knocked out top seed and world No.7 Jessica Pegula in second-round singles action at the Citi Open at Washington.
Washington, USA, 4 August 2022 | Leigh Rogers
Washington, USA
Daria Saville has upset world No.7 Jessica Pegula in the second round at a WTA 250 tournament in Washington.
The resurgent Australian posted a 7-5 6-4 victory against the top-seeded American, who won the most recent edition of this tournament in 2019.
World No.88 Saville stayed calm under pressure, saving nine of the 10 break points she faced in the one-hour and 38-minute clash.
Dash SMASH 💥
🇦🇺 @Daria_gav knocks out the Washington top seed and 2019 champion Pegula in straight sets!#CitiOpen pic.twitter.com/X7eshtvBkt
— wta (@WTA) August 3, 2022
This is Saville’s 13th career top-10 victory and her highest-ranked scalp since beating world No.4 Petra Kvitova at Beijing in October 2018.
It is another high in a remarkable comeback season for Saville, whose ranking had dipped to world No.627 in February. This is the 28-year-old’s second top-10 win this season and propels her into a third tour-level quarterfinal.
“I’m happy about it, and I think that creates kind of a good reputation and players are going to see. ‘Okay, she’s playing well. She has had some good wins this year’,” Saville said.
Saville now faces Canadian qualifier Rebecca Marino in the quarterfinals and is aiming to progress to a first tour-level singles semifinal since February 2018.
In men’s singles action, Alex de Minaur and Alexei Popyrin both lost their second-round matches.
De Minaur couldn’t maintain the momentum from his title-winning run at Atlanta last week, losing to Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka in three sets.
World No.21 De Minaur led 6-3 5-3, but was unable to serve out the match. Nishioka fought back to force a second-set tiebreak, which the world No.96 claimed after saving a match point.
From there, Nishioka took control to record a 3-6 7-6(6) 6-2 victory.
Third-seeded American Taylor Fritz proved too strong for Popyrin in their second-round meeting, not dropping a service game in a 6-4 6-3 victory.
Aussies in action – Washington
RESULTS
Women’s singles, second round
Daria Saville (AUS) d [1] Jessica Pegula (USA) 7-5 6-4
Men’s singles, second round
[3] Taylor Fritz (USA) d Alexei Popyrin (AUS) 6-4 6-3
Yoshihito Nishioka (JPN) d [11] Alex de Minaur (AUS) 3-6 7-6(6) 6-2
Men’s doubles, first round
[4] Ivan Dodig…
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