Elena Rybakina spent much of Tuesday night with her back against the wall in her Toronto quarterfinal against Naomi Osaka
She was broken in the opening game, dropped the first set, fell behind by a break not once but twice in the second and stood two points away from defeat in the tiebreak.
Hard Fought & Well Deserved 👏
— wta (@WTA) August 12, 2026
Elena Rybakina defeats Osaka to advance to the semifinals in Toronto.#NBO26 pic.twitter.com/sSVVeaFvea
But the World No 2 did what she has done all tournament. She fought. Rybakina clawed out of every deficit, dug even deeper to save four break points at 3-2 in the decider and stormed all the way back for a 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory in 2 hours and 33 minutes to emphatically punch her ticket to the semifinals.
for what is set to be just their second WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz meeting. But in the fleeting hours of Tuesday night, all that mattered was the resolve Rybakina showed in her first-ever battle with Osaka.
"I was just trying to fight," Rybakina said in her on-court interview. "The first game of the match was really tough because it cost me the set, and then in the second I was just trying to stay closer to the score, even if I'm losing. And yeah, just fight, and I'm super happy that I won this match."