The medical timeout gave Bencic a chance to collect her thoughts.
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“I really like that girl”. My serve didn’t work very well, but I returned well.
The two players were evenly matched and employed similar styles.
The rising Swiss star didn’t hide her frustration when things didn’t go her way.
Serena Williams, of the United States, tosses the ball on a serve…
But no matter how she felt about her game, the stats suggest there wasn’t much more to give.
In the late match, fifth-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia played Slovenia’s Polona Hercog. “I’m just working to get back in that positive attitude and go from there”.
Kerber broke to lead 4-3 in the third but her Romanian opponent seized the next three games to triumph 6-3 5-7 6-4.
But Halep, runner-up at the French Open last year, did just enough to eliminate the 13th seed and advance to the quarter-finals. “I said that I have to win it because I can not move anymore”.
The 21-time Grand Slam singles champion will face Italy’s Roberta Vinci, a 6-4, 6-3 victor over Russia’s Daria Gavrilova.
Second seed Simona Halep smashed an ace on match point to defeat red-hot Angelique Kerber 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 and reach the quarter-finals.
Top-ranked Serena Williams advanced to the Rogers Cup quarterfinals in Toronto on Thursday night, beating 16th-seeded Andrea Petkovic of Germany, 6-3, 6-2.
“I think I served better”, Williams said. “That was the big difference”, Williams told reporters.
Francoise Abanda of Montreal and Heidi El Tabakh of Toronto dropped a 6-3, 6-2 decision to fourth-seeded Caroline Garcia of France and Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia.
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Williams, who won the title in 2001, 2011 and 2013, dominated on service and blasted nine aces in a match that lasted just over an hour.
