WTA Tour Round-up: Top seeds advance in Cleveland and Chicago 250s

Tennis in the Land – Cleveland, Ohio

Top-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Russia fought back from a set down to win over American Catherine McNally, 2-6 6-4 6-2.

Everything was going in, and everything was there for me. I was really happy with this one because I didn't know anything about her, so I was looking her up on the internet. I thought I played really well. Katerina Siniakova

The Russian will play Polish 6th seed Magda Linette in the quarter-finals after the Pole got past Linda Fruhvirtova, a lucky loser from the Czech Republic, 7-6(2) 6-4.

Olympic gold doubles medallist Katerina Siniakova cruised into the quarter-finals at Tennis in the Land in Cleveland with a double-bagel win over Nagi Hanatani of Japan on Wednesday.

The 53rd-ranked Czech surrendered just 4 points in her 6 service games and limited Hanatani to 14 total points in the 45-minute match.

The WTA 250 tournament was disrupted by rain throughout the day.

“Everything was going in, and everything was there for me,” Siniakova said. “I was really happy with this one because I didn’t know anything about her, so I was looking her up on the internet. I thought I played really well.”

Siniakova and Barbora Krejcikova became the first Czech doubles team to win gold at the Olympics earlier this month in Tokyo.

The three-time Grand Slam champions also won the French Open this year.

The 5-foot-9 Siniakova received a standing ovation from the fans at Jacobs Pavilion when introduced as a gold medalist.

She beat 8th-seeded Shelby Rogers in the first round and will face 2nd-seeded Anett Kontaveit of Estonia in the quarter-finals.

“The most special part of this is we can play again in front of you guys,” Siniakova said, waving to the crowd. “It’s been rough for a while [because of COVID-19 restrictions], but the atmosphere is getting better and better at tournaments.”

Kontaveit, ranked 28th, beat No 61 Caroline Garcia of France, 6-3 6-3, in the round of 16, never allowing Garcia to gain a break point.

“I was consistent, I was brave and I really enjoyed myself today,” Kontaveit said.

5th seed Nadia Podoroska from Argentina lost in 2 hours 46 minutes to Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich, 6-7(9) 6-4 6-4, while Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu won over Polona Hercog from Slovenia, 7-6(5) 7-5.

Spanish 7th seed Sara Sorribes Tormo also went through when her round of 16 opponent, Russian veteran Vera Zvonareva pulled out.

Elina Svitolina leads the field of the WTA Chicago Women's Open and is in the quarters after beating Fiona Ferro in straight sets

WTA Chicago Women’s Open

Top seed Elina Svitolina will have to wait to seal her spot in the Chicago Open quarter-finals after her match with Fiona Ferro was suspended at 4-4 in the first set on Tuesday because of darkness.

There were 6 breaks of serve in the 8 games played on Tuesday before conditions intervened, and when the match resumed on Wednesday the World No 6 had no trouble booking her spot, 6-4 6-4.

The Ukrainian bronze medallist at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo will face 7th seed Kristina Mladenovic from France in the quarters, who dispatched Canadian wild-card Francoise Abanda, 6-3 6-2.

Marketa Vondrousova, the 5th seed, advanced when Alison Van Uytvanck from Belgium retired because of dizziness with the scoreline standing at 6-1, 1-0.

The Czech takes on French 9th seed Alizé Cornet next, who edged Jasmine Paolini from Italy, 7-6(4) 4-6, while her compatriot Tereza Martincova battled past Taipei’s Hsieh Su-Wei, 3-6 6-4 6-2, to play Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson, a 7-6(5) 6-3 upset winner over Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic, the 6th seed.

8th seed Marta Kostyuk also progressed with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Estonian veteran Kaia Kanepi and the Ukrainian will play Varvara Gracheva after the Russian received a walkover from qualifier Ana Bogdan after the Romania suffered from heat illness.