Elena Rybakina needed three sets, played across two days, to win her first-career match in Montreal.
The third-seeded Rybakina rallied from a set down to beat Jennifer Brady 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 6-3 in a second-round tilt at the Omnium Banque Nationale that began Tuesday and finished on Wednesday.
Rybakina, who lost in the first round in Montreal in 2021, picked up just her second win north of the border. Last year, weeks after her first Grand Slam victory at Wimbledon, she lost in the second round in Toronto to Coco Gauff in a third-set tiebreak.
Ace to close it out 💥
— wta (@WTA) August 9, 2023
No.3 seed Elena Rybakina pulls away in the third set for the win over Brady.#NBO23 pic.twitter.com/vQgmHwjltP
The match was suspended due to rain on Tuesday night with Brady, bidding for her first Top 10 win in three years, leading 4-2 in the tiebreak. The 2021 Australian Open finalist won three of the first four points played upon resumption on Wednesday to take a one-set lead in just the sixth match of her comeback after a two-year injury hiatus.
“Really happy that I managed to win this match, Rybakina said afterward. “It was a really tough one with the rain delay of yesterday.
“Today also it was a really long rally sometimes, and this is something I need to get used to with all the conditions.
”I think it was unlucky that we stopped in this moment. It was 4-2 on the tiebreak and tough score to come back. … Just to recover and start again this match, it wasn't easy, but I'm happy that in the end it was tough battle, but I managed to win.
Swiatek ousts Pliskova to reach Round of 16 in Montreal
Energizer Brady 🔋@jennifurbrady95 | #NBO23 pic.twitter.com/bnNKbNjUH9
— wta (@WTA) August 9, 2023
But Rybakina ultimately bounced back in 2 hours and 41 minutes, clocking 44 winners to Brady's 19, despite being two points from defeat at 5-5 in the second-set tiebreak. Brady had previously saved two match points to defeat Jelena Ostapenko in the first round.
On the edge: Two of the WTA's strongest servers, Brady and Rybakina combined to save the first seven break points they faced in the deciding set, before Rybakina won the last three games of the match.
The Kazakh saved a break point at 3-3, broke at love in the eighth game and hammered her 12th ace to close out her last hold at 30.
Up next: A match against another American, 2017 US Open winner Sloane Stephens, awaits Rybakina in Round 3. Stephens advanced when Victoria Azarenka withdrew from their anticipated second-round match on Tuesday due to injury.