Austin, Texas. Fourth-place Danielle Collins took just over an hour to beat Cathy McNally 6-1, 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals at the ATX Open on Thursday.
Collins, the American runner-up at the 2022 Australian Open, has retained both break points she has faced, winning five games off McNally.
Collins is the highest seeded player remaining on the field at the first hard surface tournament in the Texas capital.
She will try to reach her first semi-final of the year by beating No. 67 Anna Kalinskaya of Russia, who defeated CoCo Vandeweghe 6-3, 6-1 on Thursday.
Another quarter-final matchup will be No. 8 seeded Marta Kostyuk against Anna-Lena Friedsam.
Kostyuk easily passed the final set, beating Madison Brengle 6:3, 3:6, 6:0, and reached her third quarter-final of 2023. Kostyuk, a 20-year-old Ukrainian, only made it to the quarter-finals in an event all last season.
Fridsam, ranked 108th, beat Erica Andreeva 7–5, 6–7 (2), 7–6 (8). For the 29-year-old Friedsam, this marks the first time in her career that a German has won back-to-back matches at Tour level in North America.
On Wednesday, two quarterfinal matches took place: Sloane Stephens, seeded at number 5, against Varvara Gracheva and Katie Volynets against Peyton Stearns.
Collins, Kalinskaya, Kostyuk, Friedsam get to the Austin quarter originally appeared on NBCSports.com
Source: sports.yahoo.com
