Swiatek holds off Collins to meet Pegula in semi

World number one Iga Swiatek outlasted a determined Danielle Collins 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 on Friday to book a semi-final clash with Jessica Pegula at the WTA Montreal Open.Swiatek looked on the way to a quick win when she rode two breaks of serve to a 5-1 lead in the opening set. But Collins, the first qualifier to reach the quarter-finals of the event since 2019, overcame an early break in the second and broke Swiatek for a second time in the 10th game to force the third set.From there, however, Swiatek was in control. She broke Collins for a second time for a 5-2 lead and claimed the victory on her third match point with a sizzling forehand winner."I really wanted to play powerful and I’m pretty happy that I managed to even increase the power in the third set,” said Swiatek, who claimed her fourth career Grand Slam title at the French Open this year. Swiatek, whose Thursday win over Karolina Muchova took nine hours to complete thanks to two lengthy rain delays, said her energy level was still high."For sure tomorrow is going to be a little bit tougher since we have not a lot of time to recover, but physically I’ve been really well prepared,” she said.Fourth-seeded Pegula reached the semi-finals for a third straight year with a 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 victory over her sixth-seeded doubles partner Coco Gauff, whose nine double faults ultimately proved too much to overcome."It’s always tough to play your doubles partner,” said Pegula, whose victory marked the end of a four-match skid against top-10 players. "We know each other’s games so well, so we kind of know what we’re going to do to each other, know what our goal is."It’s just kind of trying to execute it at the right times and as best as possible. So I think I was just able to do it a little bit better today.”Thursday’s rain meant Liudmila Samsonova had to win twice on Friday to book her semi-final clash with third-seeded Elena Rybakina.Samsonova upset Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed, 7-6 (7/2), 4-6, 6-3 in a third-round match postponed from Thursday, then returned to beat 12th-seeded Swiss Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-4 in the quarters.Bencic had started her day with a 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-1 win over seventh-seeded Czech Petra Kvitova."A really long day, I don’t really have the words right now, but I was happy of how I managed my energy today,” Samsonova said. "I was feeling great on the court.”The jam-packed schedule meant Kazakhstan’s Rybakina and Daria Kasatkina didn’t take the court until 11:30pm. It would take former Wimbledon champion Rybakina three hours and 27 minutes, and five match points, to prevail 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (10/8).She saved a match point herself before finishing it off shortly before 3:00am.