It was moving day for top seeds at the D.C. Open Thursday as the quarterfinals for both the men’s and women’s draws began to fill up before late-afternoon storms halted play at the Rock Creek Park Tennis Center.
Seven of eight spots in the women’s quarterfinals have been claimed after top seed Jessica Pegula advanced in her first match of the tournament, 6-3, 6-4 over Peyton Stearns. The main draw win for the world No. 3 was her 10th in Washington, sixth most all-time among WTA players.
“Kind of a weird match. Conditions were tough, you guys can see it rained really quickly afterwards. So yeah, it was tricky. It was kind of swirling there and stadium ball felt kind of heavy … but I’m glad I got through a tough opponent,” Pegula said.
Seeded No. 1 for the last two years, Pegula is bidding for her second Washington title and third of her career. Her next obstacle is Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who’s playing some of the best tennis of her career after reaching the semifinals of Wimbledon.
“She’s kind of come back and reset really nicely. And she’s been competing really, really well. Like very fearless. So definitely going to be I think different. So yeah, we’ll see. it’s going to be a tough match. She’s been playing at a high level and I feel like she hasn’t really missed a beat,” Pegula said.
The second Ukrainian in the quarters is Marta Kostyuk, who upset France’s Caroline Garcia 6-2, 6-3 after a listless performance by the No. 6 player in the world. The second-seeded Garcia’s groundstrokes were lacking, winning only 50.9% of her service points (28-of-55) compared to Kostyuk’s 79%. The 30th-ranked Kostyuk’s triumph is her second straight over a top-10 opponent after being winless in her previous 14 tries. She’ll face defending champion Liudmila Samsonova in a match Friday.
On the men’s side, No. 5 seed Gregor Dimitrov advanced to the quarterfinals in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3, over Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori in the first match of the day. It’s the 32-year-old Bulgarian’s third win against Ruusuvuori this year, all on different surfaces, and his first trip back to the Washington quarterfinals in a decade. Thirteen-seed Ugo Humbert of France is next for Dimitrov after he needed only 63 minutes to defeat Yosuke Watanuki 6-0, 6-2.
No. 16 seed J.J. Wolf held off fellow American Michael Mmoh in an entertaining match, 6-4, 7-6 (5). The pesky Mmoh had saved 11 first-set points — seven on his serve — to get back on serve at 5-4, before Wolf immediately broke him, winning the next four points and the set.
Mmoh would remain combative in the second, fighting off a ridiculous 19-of-22 total breakpoints for the match. In the second-set tiebreak, Mmoh fought back from two points down to level it at 5-5, but double-faulted on the next point to allow Wolf to close out the win on his serve.
“It was a it was a gritty performance for sure,” Wolf said in an event with fans after the match. “Mike is a really tough competitor. And I had to stick in there today and really give it my best shot to get that one done.”
For Wolf, a mullet-sporting Cincinnati native and former Ohio State star, Washington is the fifth quarterfinal of 2022. Another win Friday would give him only the second semifinal berth of his ATP Tour career.
Wolf will face the winner of a suspended match between Svitolina’s husband, Frenchman Gael Monfils, and Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands, with Griekspoor leading 6-4, 1-6, 1-0. Monfils is the only former D.C. champion (2016) remaining in the men’s draw.
The other suspended singles match of the afternoon saw 11th-seeded American Chris Eubanks trailing Australia’s Jordan Thompson 2-5.
• George Gerbo can be reached at ggerbo@washingtontimes.com.
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