Australia’s Daria Saville defeated defending champion Jessica Pegula 7-5, 6-4 at the Washington Open on Wednesday.
World number 88 Saville demolished the American seventh seed in hot and humid conditions, while Romanian third seed Simona Halep retired through illness 7-5, 2-0 down against Anna Kalinskaya.
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“I stayed very composed,” Saville said.
“I handled the energy really well. It was really hot. But I thought it’s hot for everybody, so keep at it.”
Saville booked a quarter-final match against Canadian seed Rebecca Marino, who beat Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 6-3 3-6 6-1.
The 28-year-old Russian-born Australian won her only WTA title at the 2017 Connecticut Open but dispatched Pegula in 98 minutes to claim her second top-10 win of the year of defeating Ons Jabeur at Indian Wells in March.
“Everyone’s attitude is I’m here to win the tournament and I’m no different,” Saville said. “I’m playing really good tennis right now. I’m excited for more.”
Saville fell to 627th in the world rankings after Achilles tendon surgery sidelined her for most of last year.
He now reaches his third quarter-final of the year after Miami and Guadalajara.
“I’m happy,” Saville said.
“It builds a good reputation. Players will say, ‘He’s playing well. He’s got good wins this year.’
On the men’s side of the draw, Nick Kyrgios defeated Tommy Paul in straight sets to move into the last 16 and continue his good form heading into the US Open.
It wasn’t as good news elsewhere among the Australian contingent in Washington, with Alexei Popyrin and Alex de Minaur losing to Taylor Fritz and Yoshihito Nishioka respectively.