Elena Rybakina declared that she was 'destroyed' after her late-night marathon match against Daria Kasatkina at the National Bank Canadian Open (Omnium Banque Nationale) in Montreal.
World No. 4 Rybakina emerged victorious from a long and difficult quarter-final match at the WTA 1000 event against tenth seed Kasatkina, coming back to win in three sets 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(8).
The match lasted three hours and 27 minutes and went on until 2:55 am. Both players broke serve 10 times, but Rybakina scraped ahead in the final-set tiebreak to progress through to the semi-finals.
The Kazakhstani player was then asked if she had ever played a match like that in her career so far, to which she replied:
"I don’t think so. I have played three sets, tough battles. But like this? Honestly, physically it’s really tough. And it is so late! I never played that late. So, yeah. Guys, just thank you so much. And hopefully somehow I can recover tomorrow."
Rybakina is now set to face fifteenth seed Liudmila Samsonova, whose quick thinking on the court saw her move past world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka in her previous round.
Elena Rybakina after beating Daria Kasatkina in Montreal at 3 in the morning:
“I’m destroyed guys. Thank you for staying so late. It’s really amazing you supported us..”
Crowd goes WILD.
Match of the tournament.