By Tennis Now | Thursday, August 1, 2019
In an all-American clash, Amanda Anisimova took the first strike and had the final word.
The fourth-seeded Anisimova broke Madison Brengle in all eight of her service games powering to a 6-2, 6-2, sweep to reach her first career quarterfinal on North American hard courts in San Jose.
Watch: Air Kyrgios
The 17-year-old Anisimova will play Zheng Sasai for a spot in the Mudabala Silicon Valley Classic semifinals.
Earlier, Zheng rolled through nine consecutive games crushing Danielle Collins, 6-2, 6-0. Anisimova overwhelmed Zheng, 6-1, 6-1 in Hiroshima last year.
"I'm really happy to be transitioning back to hard courts, because it's one of my favorite surfaces," Anisimova told Andrew Krasny afterward. "I'm just going to enjoy this week. It was a little bit windy, but I got used to it, and I was just trying to find my game throughout the match."
It was a good day for the Garden State.
Anisimova, who hails from Bruce Springsteen's hometown of Freehold, N.J., advanced to her fifth quarterfinal of the season.
Qualifier Kristie Ahn, who grew up in Upper Saddle River, N.J, scored her first career Top 20 win. Ahn exploited 10 double faults from Elise Mertens beating the 20th-ranked Belgian 6-3, 6-3.
Tenacity is an Ahn asset: she went 10 years between Grand Slam debut at the 2008 US Open and her second major appearance at the 2018 Australian Open.
Next up for Ahn is a quarterfinal meeting with either fifth-seeded Donna Vekic or two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka.