WTA Montreal: Marino fairy tale continues, now against Sabalenka
Rebecca Marino also sensationally won her second match at the Montreal WTA 1000 event. Now the Canadian's biggest hurdle is waiting for the tournament: the top seeded Aryna Sabalenka .
by Michael Rothschädl
last edit:
Aug 11, 2021, 10:12 pm
Rebecca Marino has made the history of the tournament at this WTA 1000 event in Montreal so far. The Canadian actually ended her career eight years ago, but for the past three years Marino has been professionally picking up the bat again. With manageable success. Only this year, the former number 38 in the world is internationally more successful again, an ITF Tour title went to Marino's account in 2021.
A title win for which the 30-year-old was rewarded with a wildcard for the tournament in Montreal. How Marino is now exploiting this, the organizers probably did not expect either. After Rebecca Marino sensationally knocked out Madison Keys in the first round, the local hero now also defeated Paula Badosa. In a hard-fought match in which the Canadian finally won with 1: 6, 7: 5 and 6: 4.
Sabalenka has to stretch
Now Rebecca Marino has a much more difficult task waiting for her, in the round of the last 16 she gets the former world number 38. now to do with the number one of the tournament, the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka. She had to fight hard against the American wildcard Sloane Stephens and won the first round 7: 6 (4) thanks to her serve strength. But then the US Open winner from 2017 got better and better, equalized the set with 6: 4 and looked like the sure winner with a score of 4: 1 in the decisive set. But Sabalenka didn't give up, won five games in a row and thus bought her third-round ticket.
In addition, Maria Sakkari - in a nearly three-hour marathon match against Veronka Kudermetova (6: 4, 5: 7, 6: 4) - and Sara Sorribes Tormo reached the third round. The Spaniard defeated Liudmila Samsonova 6: 4 and 6: 3.