TENNIS NEWS - Russian qualifier Elena Rybakina saved a match point on her way to a stunning 4-6 7-6(6) 7-6(5) victory over third seed Caroline Garcia in the second round at the St Petersburg Ladies' Trophy on Wednesday.
Rybakina, returning from a hand injury and ranked 450th in the world, defeated Timea Bacsinszky in the first round and followed up with a sublime performance to reach her first WTA quarterfinals.
The 18-year-old came back from a break down twice in the second set to force a tiebreak before pulling off a dramatic comeback to take world No 7 Garcia to the decider.
She led by a mini-break in the third-set tiebreak and needed to dig deep to win the final two points, wrapping up her first victory against a top-10 player in two hours and 27 minutes.
Rybakina, making her 2018 debut in St Petersburg, will face the winner of the match between fifth seed Julia Goerges and Italian Roberta Vinci in the quarterfinals.
French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko overcame former world No 2 Vera Zvonareva of Russia 7-6(6) 6-3 to book a spot in the quarterfinals.
