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MONTREAL — Jessica Pegula beat doubles partner Coco Gauff 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 in an all-American match Friday to advance to the National Bank Open semifinals for the third straight year.
Tied 5-5 in the third set, the sixth-seeded Gauff double-faulted for a ninth time while defending a breakpoint to give the sixth-seeded Pegula the edge. Pegula served out to improve to 2-1 in the rivalry and end a four-match losing streak against top-10 players.
“That was a good match,” Pegula said in her on-court interview. “It’s always tough to play your doubles partner — you know exactly what you’re trying to do. It just came down to the wire and who was going to compete better.”
Gauff was coming off a victory Sunday in Washington.
Pegula will play the winner of the night match between top-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland and American qualifier Danielle Collins.
In doubles Friday, the top-ranked tandem of Pegula and Gauff withdrew in the quarterfinals, sending Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara of Japan to the semifinals.
In the other singles quarterfinals, 12th-seeded Belinda Bencic of Switzerland faced 15th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova of Russia, and third-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan opposed 10th-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Russia.
Earlier in matches pushed to Friday because of rain Thursday, Samsonova beat second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 7-6 (2), 4-6, 6-3, and Bencic topped seventh-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-1.