American Riske Beats Suarez-Navarro in Stanford

August 6, 2015 | By Brian Coleman
Riske_01

American Alison Riske notched the second Top 10 win of her career on Wednesday, downing 10th-ranked Carlos Suarez-Navarro 6-4, 6-4 to reach the Bank of the West Classic quarterfinals.

Suarez-Navarro actually jumped out to a 3-1 lead in the opening set, but Riske snatched the break right back, and another break later in the frame allowed her to take it 6-4. Riske then raced out to a 4-1 lead in the second set and never looked back, closing out the Spaniard 6-4, 6-4.

Riske broke seven times in 12 chances to make up for a lackluster serve that saw her win just over half (52 percent) of her service points.

“It was a challenging match for me,” said Riske. “Obviously she’s a fantastic player. I felt like we both played pretty well in the first set—it was close. I went up big in the second, and I feel like I got a little bit tentative, but I’m happy that I got myself together and closed the match out.”

Riske’s only other Top 10 win came back at the 2013 U.S. Open, when she ousted then 10th-ranked Petra Kvitova.

The 59th-ranked American will play eighth-seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina who beat American Nicole Gibbs 6-3, 7-6(5).

The other two matchups on Wednesday saw two upsets, as sixth-seeded German Andrea Petkovic and seventh-seeded American Madison Keys both saw their tournament runs come to an end.

Petkovic was defeated by her compatriot, Mona Barthel, who came back from a set down to win 5-7, 6-2, 7-6(4). Barthel will move on to play the winner of the match between top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki and Varvara Lepchenko.

Keys seemed to be on her game early, taking the first set 6-1, but Croatia’s Akla Tomljanovic stormed back for the 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 win. Tomljanovic will square off with the winner of the match between Karolina Pliskova and Kimiko-Date Krumm. 


Brian Coleman

 Brian Coleman is the Senior Editor for New York Tennis Magazine. He may be reached at brianc@usptennis.com

Oneononedoubles banner art resize
USTA NTC

January/February 2024 Digital Edition