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Top seed Elina Svitolina from Ukraine edged past Viktoriya Tomova, a qualifier from Bulgaria, to reach the quarter-finals at the Abierto GNP Seguros in Monterrey, Mexico, while Britain’s Heather Watson fell in two tight sets to Nuria Parrizas Diaz, the 6th seed from Spain, and both Hungary’s Marie Bouzkova and China’s Wang Qiang also advanced to the last 8 on Thursday.
I was not playing my best, but I was fighting, until the very end. And you know, the Ukrainian flag [in the crowd] really helped me today to fight… I was really fighting until the end, and I found my game in the end. Elina Svitolina
Wearing Ukrainian colours, Svitolina racked up another win for herself, battling past Tomova after 2 hours 24 minutes to claim a 7-6(3) 3-6 6-2 win and setting up a meeting with 5th-seeded Camila Osorio from Colombia, who advanced on Wednesday.
Both players vied for dominance before Svitolina had the final say to wrap up the win, finally breaking free of Tomova in the deciding set.
“It was an extremely tough match today,” the Ukrainian said on court. “I think Viktoriya played a really good match, and I had to really fight back in the third set to bring back my best game and try to come back in the match.
“In the end, I managed to win six games in a row, so it’s a good effort for me.
“It was an extremely tough first set, second set didn’t go my way, and then the third set I was 0-2 down.
“I was not playing my best, but I was fighting, until the very end. And you know, the Ukrainian flag [in the crowd] really helped me today to fight… I was really fighting until the end, and I found my game in the end.”
The World No 15 is making her second appearance at Monterrey, having won the title in her previous showing at the tournament when she won the 2020 title, defeating Bouzkova in the final.
The former World No 3 needed all of her grit to fend off the 103th-ranked Tomova, converting 7 of a whopping 19 break points to take the victory and deny the Bulgarian her first career Top 20 win.
A topsy-turvy first set saw Tomova erase 4 set points at 5-4, and the qualifier then broke Svitolina to love to lead 6-5 and serve for the set, but the top seed converted her 5th break point of the critical next game to queue up a tiebreak, where she opened up a 4-0 lead, and held on from there to take the first set.
Tomova, though, grabbed the momentum back by winning the second and leading by an early break in the third set but, from 0-2 down, Svitolina went on a winning spree, knocking off the next 6 games in a row to complete the come-back and make the last 8.
In their only prior meeting, Osorio upset Svitolina in the first round of Tenerife last year, where Svitolina was also the No 1 seed.
Heather Watson narrowly lost to Nuria Parrizas Diaz, the No 6 seed, at the Monterrey Open on Thursday
Earlier on Thursday, Nuria Parrizas Diaz, the only other seed to play her second-round match on Thursday, defeated Watson, the 2016 Monterrey champion, 6-4 7-6(2), in an hour and 36 minutes, and the Spaniard will play next fellow countrywoman, Sara Sorribes Tormo, the 4th seed.
Former Top 15 player, 30-year old Wang Qiang also booked her quarter-final spot against Leylah Fernandez, the 2nd seed from Canada, after winning her round-of-16 match against Egypt’s Mayar Sherif, 6-0 6-7(2) 6-3.
In the last match of the day, Bouzkova ousted Petra Martic from Croatia in their second-round encounter, the Czech wrapping up a 6-4 6-2 win in an hour and 34 minutes.
For a place in the semi-finals, Bouzkova will play Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia.