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MONTREAL: Two-time defending champion Jessica Pegula was eliminated in the third round of the National Bank Open, falling 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 to Anastasija Sevastova on Friday.
Sevastova, a 35-year-old from Latvia who was ranked 11th in 2018 but has fallen to 386th, broke the third-seeded Pegula six times on 10 chances.
“Somehow, I was down 2-0 in the second set and started to play better and better,” Sevastova said. “Third set, I played really good. “Just trying to stay on the court as long as possible.”
In the night session, Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek of Poland routed Eva Lys of Germany 6-2, 6-2. The second-seeded Swiatek advanced to face 16th-seeded Clara Tauson of Denmark, a 6-3, 6-0 winner over Ukraine’s Yuliia Starodubtseva.
Sevastova is the lowest-ranked player to beat a top-10 player since Angelique Kerber edged Jelena Ostapenko last year at Indian Wells.
Sevastova has played 24 WTA Tour-level matches in four years. She got a spot in the main draw with a protected ranking because of a knee injury.
The loss continued a poor run for the fourth-ranked Pegula, who won her opener in Montreal over Maria Sakkari of Greece, but exited Wimbledon and the D.C. Open after one match in July.
Sevastova will take on Naomi Osaka, who moved to the fourth round with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.
Osaka, a former No. 1-ranked player from Japan, is playing her first tournament with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski, She had five aces and converted 6 of 9 break-point opportunities to win the match in 1 hour, 12 minutes.
“She broke me a couple times, but she’s a really good returner, so I can’t take that personally,” Osaka said. “I went in there knowing she’s a great player, and if I give her a chance she’s going to hit a winner on me, so I just tried to keep my pace and stay as solid as I could.”
Sixth-seeded Madison Keys beat fellow American Caty McNally 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
“Today I did a good job of bouncing back after the first set,” Keys said. “Let go of the first set and move on. Happy I was able to do that.”
 

WASHINGTON: Leylah Fernandez collected the biggest title of her career at the D.C. Open with her most lopsided victory of the tournament, defeating Anna Kalinskaya 6-1, 6-2 in the final on Sunday.
The left-handed Fernandez, a 22-year-old from Canada who is ranked 36th, earned her fourth singles trophy — all have come at hard-court tournaments — and first at a WTA 500 event. She came quite close to a Grand Slam championship as a teenager at the 2021 US Open, making it all the way to the final in New York before losing to Emma Raducanu.
There almost was a rematch in Washington, but Kalinskaya eliminated Raducanu in the semifinals Saturday.
Until Sunday, the 48th-ranked Kalinskaya had not dropped a set all week.
However, she wasn’t able to keep up with Fernandez, who saved the only break point she faced while taking four of Kalinskaya’s service games in a match that lasted 1 hour, 10 minutes. One key: Fernandez claimed 10 of the 12 points in the match when Kalinskaya hit a second serve.

Another: Kalinskaya finished with 24 unforced errors and just nine winners.
This was the first title for Fernandez since October 2023 at the Hong Kong Open.
She dedicated this victory to her mother, her older sister and her fitness trainer.
“Thank you so much for never giving up on me — and don’t give up on yourselves,” Fernandez said. “This trophy is for you guys.”
She arrived in Washington with a losing record this season and hadn’t won more than two matches at the same tournament since last November.
With a mix of baseline excellence and strong net play, Fernandez eliminated top-seeded Jessica Pegula — the US Open runner-up last year — and No. 3 seed Elena Rybakina — the Wimbledon champion in 2022 — on the way to the final.
The win against Rybakina in Saturday’s semifinals took three tiebreakers and more than three hours to decide.
“Amazing fight this week,” Kalinskaya told Fernandez after the title match. “You truly deserve it.”
There was no such drama against Kalinskaya, a 26-year-old Russian who fell to 0-3 in tour-level finals. She lost to Jasmine Paolini in Dubai and to Pegula in Berlin last year.
The men’s final scheduled for later Sunday was No. 7 seed Alex de Minaur against No. 12 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who defeated No. 1 Taylor Fritz in the quarterfinals and No. 4 Ben Shelton in the semifinals.