Gauff Wins Washington Opener, Svitolina Advances, Keys Breezes Past Brady

The 3rd-seeded Coco Gauff moved Hailey Baptiste in comfortable fashion 6-1, 6-4 to reach the quarters at Washington, D.C.

Gauff, two years younger than the Washington native Baptiste, never dropped serve in the match and got her third and final break at 3-all in the second.

“Playing Hailey, a friend, known her for a long time,” Gauff told the WTA. “It was really cool to play her in front of her hometown, and hopefully we have many more battles in the future.

“We practiced together so many times. Camps together. We even shared a room together in Palm Springs for, like, three weeks or two weeks. We were roommates. Yeah, we know each other very well.”

Madison Keys put a quick end to Jennifer Brady’s tour-level comeback in D.C., easing past the former UCLA standout and her doubles partner 6-4, 6-0, taking the last seven games of the match.

“I think I’m not the only person on tour to say that we’re so happy to have Jenny back,” Keys told the WTA. “She’s had such a long road and we’re so happy she’s back from injury and playing some great tennis.

“Unfortunately, we had to play each other so early but I think there’s a lot of great tennis for Jenny to play,” she added. “Her level in the first set was very high so I have no doubt that she’ll be back where she should be soon.”

Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine kept rolling cruising past No. 5 seed Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-2.

Svitolina never lost serve while breaking four times in the match. She has won all eight of tour-level head-to-head encounters with Kasatkina.

“I just try to fight each time I play Dasha,” Svitolina said. “She’s a tough opponent to face, and each time, I try to play just one extra ball over the net, to take and dictate the game. I’m really happy I won the match today.”

Other Wednesday matches saw No. 6 Belinda Bencic send off Lauren Davis of the United States 6-1, 6-4. Bencic will now face Gauff.

No. 8 seed Liudmila Samsonova continued her title defense dominating Romania’s Sorana Cirstea 6-1, 6-3.

On Thursday, No. 1 Jessica Pegula makes her debut against former NCAA champion Peyton Stearns in a first-time tour-level contest.

No. 2 seed Caroline Garcia opens against Marta Kostyuk and No. 4 Maria Sakkari takes on Leylah Fernandez.

TAGS: Cori Gauff, Hailey Baptiste, Elina Svitolina, Daria Kasatkina, Belinda Bencic, Lauren Davis, Liudmila Samsonova, Sorana Cirstea, Madison Keys, ,

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