Jessica Pegula and Elena Rybakina Struggle To Survive In Adelaide

At the Adelaide International on Wednesday, world No. 3 Elena Rybakina and fifth-ranked Jessica Pegula dominated matches to secure their places in the quarterfinals. Following her dominance over Aryna Sabalenka to win the Brisbane International title on Sunday, first seed Rybakina had significant difficulty defeating Cristina Busca of Spain 6-3, 7-5. The Kazakh, who was born in Russia, will play either Veronika Kudermetova or Ekaterina Alexandrova for a spot in the semi-finals of the 2017 Australian Open. She is hoping to go far in the competition.

After overcoming Bernarda Pera after a sluggish start, Pegula advanced to the quarterfinals, where she will face 2021 French Open champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

It took the second seed two and a half hours to prevail 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the all-American match.

“I tried not to become angry and maintained my composure. Pegula said, “I want to keep getting better and have a positive outlook.

“It’s a brand new year and I want to find my confidence for the Australian Open.”

In the last three Australian Open competitions, Pegula has advanced to the quarterfinals.

Katerina Siniakova was beaten by Pavlyuchenkova 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 to maintain her tournament chances.

German Laura Siegemund, who won the United Cup, defeated Romanian Ana Bogdan 6-4, 7-5. Anna Kalinskaya or Daria Kasatkina will face her in the round of eight.

Meanwhile, Caroline Garcia of France was no match for Latvia’s former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko, who defeated her 6-4, 5-7, 6-4. Ostapenko will now face Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine.

In the men’s division, third seed Sebastian Korda of the United States defeated Lorenzo Sonego 6-4, 7-6 (12/10), while Tommy Paul, the top seed, easily defeated qualifier Alex Bolt 6-3, 6-2.

In the quarterfinals, they will face Australian Chris O’Connell and British Jack Draper, respectively.

“The first match of the year, you never really know what to expect,” said Paul.

“It’s clear that I put in a lot of effort over the last two months, but emotions experienced on the court cannot be replicated. I was thus glad to go play some excellent tennis outside.”

After a long battle lasting three hours and forty-ninties, Draper defeated Serb Miomir Kecmanovic 5-7, 7-6 (11/9), and 7-6 (9/7).

Nicolas Jarry, the second seed from Chile, defeated Matteo Arnaldi, the Italian, 6-7 (5/7), 7-6 (9/7), 6-4, saving a match point in the second-set tiebreak. Jarry’s victory took more than three hours.

On the other hand, O’Connell easily defeated Alexander Shevchenko of Russia, winning 6-3 and 6-1 in 60 minutes.

Elise Mertens, the top seed at the WTA Hobart International, defeated Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of the Slovak Republic 6-2, 6-3 to go to the last eight.

Next up for her is Arantxa Rus, who defeated Varvara Gracheva of France 6-2, 6-3.

While Zhu Lin and Yuan Yue, a Chinese duo, also made advancement, Sofia Kenin, the 2020 Australian Open winner and fifth seed, lost badly.