Top seeds Rublev and Sabalenka tested in Washington win

WASHINGTON:

Top seeds Andrey Rublev and Aryna Sabalenka fought off decisive challenges to avoid upsets with three-set triumphs on Wednesday to advance to the ATP and WTA Washington Open.

World number eight Rublev fired 15 aces and rallied after a rain delay to see off 20-year-old Frenchman Luca Van Assche 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the last 16 on the hard court for the US Open, which starts on August 26.

“The first set I was playing really bad. I was missing for no reason sometimes out of nowhere,” said Rublev.

“When you play horrible tennis, you feel like today is not your day, somehow you win these matches, they are much more special than when you play normally and you win much easier.”

Two-time Australian Open champion Champalenka overcame 78th-ranked Camila Rakimova 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals.

Third-ranked Sabalenka, who had a first-round bye, is coming off a right shoulder injury that forced her to withdraw from Wimbledon.

He hit 13 aces and 53 winners to win after two hours and 46 minutes.

“Very happy to get this win,” said Sabalenka. “It was a very difficult match for me, especially since I didn’t play for probably a month. It was a tough battle. She was playing such incredible tennis.

“I really had to fight it.”

Top seed Sabalenka will face either two-time Australian Open winner Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, the sixth seed, or China’s Wang Yafan in Friday’s quarter-finals.

Next up for Rublev will be France’s 68th-ranked Arthur Rinderknech, who qualified 16th when China’s Shang Juncheng retired leading 3-2.

Rublev is chasing his 17th career ATP Tour title after triumphs this year in Madrid and Hong Kong.

The 26-year-old Russian won his second ATP Masters in May on the clay of Madrid, the first coming last year in Monte Carlo.

Van Assche, ranked 118th, broke Rublev to take a 5-4 lead in the opening set and again held his fifth ace of the match to take the first set in 42 minutes.

“First set, I was playing horrible,” said Rublev. “I missed a lot of easy balls without meaning. At the end I start to feel very tight. He started to feel confident.”

Rublev led 3-2 in the second set when rain interrupted the match and hours later, when play resumed, he broke in the eighth game and took the set on his 11th ace.

“The rain delay, I was able to calm down, think about the race, figure out what I did wrong,” Rublev said.

Rublev broke for 3-2 in the third set and served to win.

Sabalenka broke in the 11th game and took the first set in 67 minutes.

The 22-year-old Russian Rakimova broke in the final game of the second set on Sabalenka’s 41st error to force a decider.

Rakimova sent a backhand to surrender a break in the seventh game of the final set and Sabalenka held twice to win.

“I just tried to keep focusing on myself in those key moments, trying to stay focused and aggressive and put as much pressure on her as I could,” Sabalenka said.

Britain’s 21-year-old Emma Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, beat American Peyton Stearns 7-6 (8/6), 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals.

“I’m very happy with how I got through it,” Raducanu said.