China’s Zheng Qinwen moves into final 16 at National Bank Open in Toronto after Jabeur forced to retire
- No 5 seed Ons Jabeur forced to quit second-round showdown with China’s Zheng Qinwen, who now meets former world No 4 Bianca Andreescu in the final 16
- Zheng, ranked No 51 edged out Canadian wild card Rebecca Marino 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in the previous round of the Canadian Open
China’s Zheng Qinwen moved into the last 16 of the National Bank Open in Toronto early on Thursday after No 5 seed Ons Jabeur retired with abdominal pain.
The surging 19-year-old was leading Jabeur 6-1, 2-1 when she was forced to withdraw from their second-round match. Zheng had edged out Canadian wild card Rebecca Marino 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in the previous round.
Zheng has now collected two hard-court wins in a row at tour-level for the first time since January, including the first top 10 win of her career with the victory over Jabeur.
Ranked No 51, Zheng is in the midst of her breakthrough season, which she started ranked No 143. She will now face Bianca Andreescu, their first meeting.
Earlier on Thursday, Anett Kontaveit was another top 5 player to be ousted from the tournament in their opening matches following first-round byes after world No 21 Jil Teichmann upset No 2 seed Kontaveit 6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour and 27 minutes to reach the round of 16 in Toronto.
Teichmann converted four of her six break points while also fending off six of the eight break points she faced.
Teichmann earned the fifth Top 5 win of her career, and she defeated a current World No 2 for the second time. She had previously beaten then No 2 Naomi Osaka during her run to the WTA 1000 Cincinnati final last year.
Teichmann, who beat former world No 1 Venus Williams in the first round, will square off against another former world No 1, two-time National Bank Open champion Simona Halep in the round of 16. Teichmann and Halep will meet for the first time.
Meanwhile Nick Kyrgios claimed the biggest scalp of his red-hot winning streak when he upset world No Daniil Medvedev at the ATP Montreal Masters.
Australia’s Wimbledon finalist beat Medvedev 6-7 (2/7), 6-4, 6-2 to produce his second career upset of a reigning number one after ambushing Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon in 2014.
Kyrgios had shown resilience to rally after the disappointment of losing the opening set in Montreal, during which he had two set points on the Medvedev serve at 5-4, but could not convert.
An early break of the top seed’s serve in the second set proved key as the Australian continued to dominate behind his delivery and level the match.
“Today I had a very clean objective of how I was going to play, a lot of serve-and-volley, a lot of aggressive play from the back,” Kyrgios said. “I executed better than he did, that’s all it comes down to. He won the first set and I feel like I had opportunities there as well, so hopefully I can just keep this rolling.”
