4 shocking results from Day 4 at Canadian Open ft. Coco Gauff, Jelena Ostapenko
The Day 4 of the 2024 Canadian Open only saw half of the matches take place. The men did not feature on August 9 due to heavy rain in Montreal, and it was women who provided all the action in the courts of Toronto.
Top two seeds, Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka, played their respective third-round matches at the WTA1000 tournament on August 9, but only one emerged victorious. Defending champion Jessica Pegula also kept her title defense unblemished with another straight-set win. However, Day 4 at the WTA Canadian Open saw many seeded players being ousted from the competition.
On that, let's take a look at the four most shocking results from Day 4 of the 2024 Canadian Open:
#4 Victoria Azarenka
Victoria Azarenka came to Toronto after a quarterfinal finish at the Citi Open and began her campaign with a convincing win against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. The two-time Grand Slam champion showed incredible grit while coming back from a set down to beat Greet Minnen in the second round and faced Peyton Stearns in the third. The American broke the veteran Belarusian to take the one-set advantage.
Stearns piled more misery on Azarenka in the second set. After the 37-year-old was broken for a second time in the set, she retired from the match due to a thigh injury and handed Stearns a 6-4, 4-2 (rt.) victory and passage into her maiden WTA 1000 quarterfinal.
#3 Anna Kalinskaya
Anna Kalinskaya has been amongst the most improved players on the 2024 WTA Tour. A maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal in Melbourne and runner-up finish in Dubai, coupled with deep runs at other events, have boosted the Russian into the top 20 of the WTA rankings.
Kalinskaya was seeded tenth at the Canadian Open and did not drop a set in her first two matches. However, the World No. 17 struggled to build momentum against a resurgent Amanda Anisimova in the third round. Kalinskaya broke the American in the first game but could not hold on to her lead. The 22-year-old broke the Russian back thrice to comfortably take the first set. The match did not reach its natural conclusion, as Kalinskaya retired before the second set due to dizziness.
This was Anisimova's second win against a top-10 seed in Toronto, having previously beaten fifth seed Daria Kasatkina in the second round.
#2 Jelena Ostapenko
Jelena Ostapenko made a fantastic start to the year with a couple of WTA 500 titles in Adelaide and Linz. But since then, she has struggled to find form on the tour. At the Canadian Open, the Latvian was seeded fourth and outlasted reigning Citi Open champion Paula Badosa in three sets in her opening match at the tournament.
Ostapenko faced lucky loser Taylor Townsend in the third round on August 9 and was completely lost for answers. The former Roland Garros champion committed too many unforced errors and landed too few first serves to cause any trouble to Townsend, who easily won the match 6-2, 6-1, and progressed to her maiden WTA 1000 quarterfinal.
#1 Coco Gauff
Top seed Coco Gauff entered the 2024 Canadian Open after a disappointing run at the Paris Olympics. She reached the quarterfinals at the Canadian Open last year and began her campaign this year with a confident win against Wang Yafan in the second round.
Gauff faced an in-form Diana Shnaider in the third round. Shnaider, who has won three tour-level titles in 2024, needed three sets to win her first two matches in Toronto. However, the 14th seed showed zero signs of fatigue while dispatching the American 6-4, 6-1.
With Gauff now gone, second-seed Sabalenka and third-seed and defending champion Jessica Pegula are now the prime contenders for the title.