No.3 seed Elena Rybakina saved one match point during a marathon late-night victory over No.10 seed Daria Kasatkina to reach the Omnium Banque Nationale semifinals.
Rybakina prevailed 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(8) over Kasatkina after 3 hours and 27 minutes of play in their quarterfinal classic. The match ended just five minutes before the clock struck 3:00 a.m. on Saturday morning.
Facts and figures: On a day where four of the five preceding matches were three-setters which lasted over two hours, this final match of the day was the lengthiest by far. It currently ranks as one of the 10 longest matches of this season.
Rybakina has now won all four of her WTA 1000 quarterfinals in 2023, after going 0-3 in WTA 1000 quarterfinals before this year. Rybakina has won 22 matches at WTA 1000 events this year, which leads all players in 2023.
3 in the morning.
— Omnium Banque Nationale (@OBNmontreal) August 12, 2023
This is cinema.#NBO23 pic.twitter.com/Js33i9W3ls
Rybakina is also this season's tour leader in aces. She struck seven more against Kasatkina to bring her total for the year up to 370.
Both Rybakina and Kasatkina broke serve 10 times in the closely-contested encounter, but it is Rybakina who moves on to a semifinal showdown against No.15 seed Liudmila Samsonova. Samsonova has won both of their previous meetings, including a tussle in Montreal two years ago.
Read more: Samsonova doubles up to reach Montreal semifinals
Topsy-turvy affair: Kasatkina was a game away from a straight-sets win when she served for the match at 5-4 in the second set. However, she never reached match point in that game, and Rybakina reeled off six games in a row to notch a 3-0 lead in the third set.
Kasatkina, though, went on a winning streak of her own after that, taking the next four games to lead by a break at 4-3 in the third set. Kasatkina served for the match again at 6-5, but she dropped serve once more to set up the decisive tiebreak.
In the breaker, Rybakina powered to triple match point at 6-3, but Kasatkina rebounded to level footing at 6-6. A fourth match point for Rybakina at 7-6 also went begging, as Kasatkina won her two service points to lead 8-7 and garner a match point of her own.
However, Rybakina fired an unreturnable serve to erase that match point and reach 8-8. A wide Kasatkina backhand gave Rybakina her fifth match point, and the No.3 seed converted that chance with a winning overhead.