Austin | Collins leads American charge into quarter-finals –…

Danielle Collins swept past Caty McNally into the Last 8 at the ATX Open in Austin, Texas on Thursday where she will meet Anna Kalinskaya, while Marta Kostyuk takes on Anna-Lena Friedsam for a spot in the semi-finals on Friday.

Collins, the 2022 Australian Open runner-up, who is now the highest seed left standing at No 4, needed just 67 minutes to overpower her American compatriot, 6-1 6-1, saving both break points she faced while claiming 5 of McNally’s service games.

McNally arrived in Austin on Monday after reaching the singles semi-finals and winning the doubles title last week in Mérida, Mexico.

Collins will try to reach her first semi-final of the year by next beating 67th-ranked Kalinskaya after the Russian was even more efficient than the World No 38, needing only 57 minutes to get past Coco Vandeweghe, an American Lucky Loser, 6-3 6-1, to reach her first quarter-final since last October in Guadalajara.

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Meanwhile, No 8 seed Kostyuk breezed through the final set to beat another American in Madison Brengle, 6-3 3-6 6-0, and reached her 3rd quarter-final of 2023.

Kostyuk, a 20-year-old from Ukraine, who made it only as far as the quarter-finals at one event last season, now will face Friedsam for a place in the Last 4.

Earlier, in the opening match on Thursday, Friedsam, the German who is ranked 108, outlasted 18-year-old Erika Andreeva for a 7-5 6-7(2) 7-6(8) win in 3 hours and 11 minutes.

Friedsam was twice within 2 points of the closing out the match in the 12th game of the second set, but the Lucky Loser from Russia, who saw off Britain’s Harriet Dart in the 1st-round in the longest match of the season so far, clocking in a 3 hours 32 minutes, held her serve to force a tiebreak, which she romped through to level at a set all.

Andreeva gained the first lead in the decider with a break to go up 4-2, but the 18-year-old was broken when serving for the match at 5-3, and the contest ultimately came down to the final tiebreak.

Friedsam opened up a 6-4 lead in the breaker, but Andreeva battled back to hold her own match point at 8-7, only to see 3 straight points sealing the match for the German, who has now reached back-to-back WTA quarter-finals after doing so in Linz, Austria, 3 weeks ago.

The two other quarter-final match-ups set up on Wednesday saw a trio of Americans advance, with 5th-seeded Sloane Stephens next facing Russia’s Varvara Gracheva, and Katie Volynets against Peyton Stearns for places in the Last 4.

A general view of the Westwood Country Club where the inaugural WTA 250 tournament is being played in Austin, Texas, this week

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