By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday August 9, 2024

 

Diana Shnaider made short work of Coco Gauff to reach the quarterfinals in Toronto.

Photo Source: TTV

It was a great day for Americans at the National Bank Open in Toronto – just not for Coco Gauff.

Five Americans – Jessica Pegula, Emma Navarro, Peyton Stearns, Taylor Townsend and Amanda Anisimova – moved into the last eight on Friday, but Coco Gauff took a 6-4, 6-1 loss to Russia’s Diana Shnaider.



Shnaider earns her first career Top-10 win over the top-seeded World No.2, and will face Luidmila Samsonova in the quarterfinals on Saturday.

She’s 27-13 on the season.

The 24th-ranked Russian was content to pay the percentages on a breezy evening in Toronto, while Gauff struggled to find her range, particularly in the second set, and went down quickly, in 71 minutes.

Shnaider, 20, who won her maiden title at Bad Homburg on the grass this summer, won 26 of 32 first-serve points and saved the only break point she faced. She broke three times from eight opportunities.

"The second set I mentally just got frustrated and kind of just let it get away from me," Gauff said.

The American admitted that there was some lingering fatigue after flying in from the Paris Olympics and switching surfaces.

"I knew I was going to go into this tired either way, that's just how it is," she said. "Sometimes I question like whether I should have played or not, but at the end of the day I wanted to test myself and see if I would be able to, how I would do being mentally tired a little bit and physically fatigued. I said going into the tournament I didn't have high expectations, but I wish I could have competed better today, even if it resulted in a loss. I don't think I competed well."

Shnaider also played the Olympics, and hung around longer as she went deep in the women's doubles draw.

"Coco is a very experienced player, she had a very good season last year on the hard courts events, so, yeah, just great win for me, and I hope I will just keep it up," she said.

Defending champion Pegula moved through with a 6-2, 6-4 win over American qualifier Ashlyn Krueger, while lucky loser Townsend reached her first WTA quarterfinal with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Jelena Ostapenko.

"Obviously we wanted to do better at the Olympics and having a lot of top players, but obviously didn't go our way," Pegula told reporters, referring to American success in Toronto this week. "So it's kind of nice to come back here and kind of get back into the same mindset of being able to be in North America, play on the hard courts where I think we feel really comfortable, so it's a pretty cool stat."

Navarro topped Marta Kostyuk, 7-5, 7-5, while Amanda Anisimova defeated Anna Kalinskaya when the Russian retired after losing the first set, 6-2.

Pegula will face Stearns, who also benefitted from a retirement. The former Texas Longhorn got past Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 4-2, RET.

Navarro will face Townsend in the quarterfinals, while Anisimova will face the winner between No.2-seeded Aryna Sabalenka and Katie Boulter.