Kaia Kanepi, an Estonian tennis player, has made it to the second round of the Canadian Open (Rogers Cup) in Toronto in the 2022 season.
The world number 31 got the golden opportunity after her opponent, world number 39 Naomi Osaka, was forced to withdraw with a back injury as the Estonian led 7-6, 3-0 in the first round of the Canadian Open.
“I felt my back from the start and even though I tried my best to keep going, I just couldn’t play this time,” admitted Osaka. “I want to congratulate Kaia for playing well and I want to wish her all the best for the rest of the tournament.”
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The result was an unfortunate end to a much anticipated match. In their previous meeting, the Estonian cornered former world number 1 Osaka 7-5 in the third set of the 2017 US Open third round.
No matter how the match goes, Kaia Kanepi has now bagged a fifth win in his last six appearances, after the 37-year-old reached his tenth career final in Washington last week (losing to Liudmila Samsonova).
Osaka lost serve at 2-3 and she asked for a break for medical reasons two games later. But after that, the Japanese forced Kanepi to make more mistakes and saved a set point at 5-6 before entering the tiebreak.
In the tiebreak, the Estonian took a 5/4 lead before converting a second set point opportunity after the Japanese forehand returned too wide.
Kanepi then grabbed the first three games in the second set before the player who has bagged four Grand Slam titles, Osaka finally decided to withdraw from the match.
In the second round of the Canadian Open, Kanepi will meet another Grand Slam champion and eighth seed, Garbine Muguruza. Head to head both players drew 1-1 after Muguruza won their first meeting at the 2014 Australian Open, before the Estonian avenged the loss at this season’s French Open.
China’s Zhang Shuai will take on 15th seed Simona Halep in the second round of the Canadian Open with a convincing 6-1, 6-3 win over Spain’s Cristina Bucsa.
