American teenager Sofia Kenin reached her second quarterfinal of the year, defeating home favorite Francoise Abanda 6-4, 6-4 in Quebec City on Thursday.
Kenin, the No. 5 seed, overcame big hitting but erratic spurts from the 21-year-old Canadian, and put an impressive 71 percent of first serves in play, underscoring her more consistent play.
That consistency was evident in the opening set, where Kenin raced out to a 3-0 lead and won Abanda’s first three service games, the latter when she overpowered Abanda with a forehand that sent the Canadian back on her heels.
Soon, however, Abanda found her hitting stroke, as she bludgeoned groundstrokes to all corners of the court en route to breaking Kenin as she served for the set. But Kenin was able to squeeze through on her second attempt, lofting a forehand winner on her first set point.
It was Kenin, who at 19 reached the semifinals in Mallorca earlier this year as a qualifier, on the back foot in the second set. She failed to convert break chances offered by an up-and-down Abanda in the opening game, and had few more opportunities. Then at 3-4, she faced two break points in a trying game, which she eventually survived with a clutch unreturnable serve.
She quickly earned one break point in the next game and coolly converted it with a crosscourt backhand winner, and served out the match in straightforward fashion in the next game. The win moves her one round deeper than a year ago on the Canadian carpet and puts her at a career-high No. 62 in the world.
She will face a tougher task on Friday, when she meets Olympic champion Monica Puig in the quarterfinals. The No. 3 seed has returned to the top 50 and has nine wins in the last four-plus weeks. It will be a first-ever meeting between the two in the marquee match of the day.
No. 2 seed Petra Martic also plays in the bottom-heavy draw; just one seeded player, No. 8 Pauline Parmentier, remains on the top half. She meets Varvara Lepchenko, while Rebecca Watson faces Canadian wild card Rebecca Marino, who stormed from behind to beat Georgina Garcia-Perez in three sets on Thursday evening.