Rybakina defeats Osaka to secure last semi-final berth at NBO

Elena Rybakina defeated Naomi Osaka 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 on Tuesday at the National Bank Open to earn the last semi-final berth at the WTA Tour event.

The second seed from Kazakhstan broke Osaka’s serve at 3-3 in the deciding set before completing the win in two hours 33 minutes at Sobeys Stadium.

The match started earlier than planned after Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic pulled out of the tournament due to a hip injury. Fourth-seeded Coco Gauff advanced to the semi-finals via walkover.

Organizers confirmed the withdrawal shortly before their match was scheduled to begin.

“I am really sorry to not be able to compete tonight,” Bencic said in a statement. “This is an amazing tournament and I was really looking forward to playing in front of the great fans here in Toronto.

“I tried everything possible to be ready for tonight.”

Ninth-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and seventh-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland won their quarter-final matches on Monday.

The 12th-seeded Bencic, who won here in 2015, played with significant taping around her left thigh in a fourth-round win over Alexandra Eala of the Philippines on Sunday.

Semi-final matches at the US$7.43-million tournament were set for Wednesday. The final was scheduled for Thursday.

The 11th-seeded Osaka broke serve in the match’s opening game and was two points away from victory in the second-set tiebreaker before Rybakina pulled even.

At 3-2 in the decider, Osaka had four breakpoint opportunities to pad her lead but Rybakina held serve to tie it.

Osaka was broken after that and Rybakina would close out the match with her 13th ace to secure her third WTA 1000 semi-final appearance of the season.

Osaka reached the final last year before falling to Canada’s Victoria Mboko, who was unable to defend her title due to a knee injury.

In doubles semi-final play, Italy’s Sara Errani and American Nicole Melichar-Martinez beat Taiwan’s Su-Wei Hsieh and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko 6-1, 4-6, 10-8.

In quarter-final action, Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia and Britain’s Olivia Nicholls posted a 7-5, 6-4 win over Belgium’s Elise Mertens and Russia’s Diana Shnaider.