No. 2 seed Petra Martic rolled past Olga Govortsova 6-0, 6-2 on Thursday, pushing the Croatian into the final eight on the rarely-seen carpet courts in French Canada.
Martic converted five of her nine break point opportunities and saved all eight she faced herself, taking advantage of errant serving from Govortsova, who won just three of 16 second serve points and an even half on her first serve.
The Croatian faced one of her biggest tests in her opening service game. She saved two break points after breaking Govortsova to open the match, the second with one of her three aces, before the set opened up for her. A sublime passing shot and big forehands gave Martic a double-break lead, and Govortsova handed over a third break with a double fault at 0-4.
Martic did need two set points to close out a 26-minute set in which she converted all three break points she faced, and the second set offered little more difficulty.
Govortsova did hold to open the set — her only service game in which Martic did not have break point — but two consecutive breaks thereafter extinguished any faint comeback hopes. The errors also flowed more freely from the Belarussian; on one Martic break point, she had the entire court open but instead mashed her soft volley into the net.
Martic was unsteady in the final stages, failing to convert four match points on Govortsova’s serve and then facing break point as she attempted to serve out the match. She saved it and then secured the victory on her fifth match point.
The win was a seventh straight for Martic, who won the challenger event in Chicago last week without dropping a set. It is an impressive late-summer turnaround for the 27-year-old, who lost three straight matches — all to players ranked below her — before last week and was just 1-2 at tour level on summer hard courts.
Martic, No. 38 in the world this week, could rise to a career high with a win Friday against Jessica Pegula. The American qualifier came from behind in both sets to beat Ons Jabeur earlier Thursday.