Elina Svitolina and Bianca Andreescu were dumped out of the Eastbourne grass-court tournament on Wednesday, while Taiwan’s Chan sisters eased past their round-of-16 opponents to advance to the women’s doubles quarter-finals.
Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina upset second seed Svitolina 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) to reach the quarter-finals, while Andreescu, seeded third, went down 6-3, 6-3 to Anett Kontaveit of Estonia at the Wimbledon warm-up event.
Svitolina held game point to edge 5-4 ahead in the first set, but Rybakina found three stunning forehand winners to snatch the crucial break and take the lead instead.
Photo: Reuters
The world No. 21 maintained her advantage, breaking early in the second set, but missed an opportunity to take a 5-2 double-break lead and Ukraine’s Svitolina forced a tiebreak.
Rybakina refocused and a series of emphatic serves and backhands enabled her to dominate, sealing her third match point with a service winner.
Kontaveit breezed past Canada’s Andreescu, converting six of her eight break points against the 2019 US Open champion.
However, top seed Aryna Sabalenka stormed past Alison Riske, 6-1, 6-4.
Jelena Ostapenko came from a set and a break down to beat Birmingham champion Ons Jabeur 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, while Anastasija Sevastova saw off the US’ Coco Gauff 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.
WOMEN’S DOUBLES
In the women’s doubles at Eastbourne on Wednesday, Taiwan’s fourth-seeded duo of Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching eased through their round-of-16 match against Hayley Carter of the US and Nao Hibino of Japan 6-0, 6-2.
In the quarter-finals yesterday, the Chan sisters were to face the pairing of Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Coco Gauff of the US.
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