Pegula ends Collins' win streak at 12 matches in thriller

Jessica Pegula needed six match points to subdue
Danielle Collins in the third round in Montreal.
2018 photo by Paul Bauman

   Danielle Collins' winning streak ended at 12 matches in a late-night thriller between two hard-hitting Americans.

   Collins saved five match points before falling 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 to Jessica "Count" Pegula tonight in the third round of the National Bank Open on hardcourts in Montreal. The 2-hour, 28-minute match concluded at 1:32 a.m. EDT.

   Collins, 27, won Palermo on clay three weeks ago and San Jose on hardcourts last week for her first two WTA titles. She had surgery for endometriosis, in which tissue inside the uterus grows outside of it, in early April and returned less than two months later for the French Open. Doctors removed a cyst the size of a tennis ball from her ovary, as well as material from her bowel and bladder.

   Collins and Pegula are ranked 28th and 30th (sixth and seventh in the United States), respectively.

   Pegula, whose parents own the NFL's Buffalo Bills and NHL's Buffalo Sabres, reached a Northern California Challenger final in 2012 at 18 and semifinal in 2018.

   ATP Tour — In the second round of doubles in Toronto, No. 3 seeds Rajeev "Los Angeles" Ram, a volunteer assistant coach at the University of California, Berkeley from Carmel, Ind., and Joe Salisbury "Steak" of Great Britain dismissed Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan and Andreas Mies of Germany 6-3, 6-2.

   Juniors — No. 7 seed Dali "Lama" Blanch of Deerfield Beach, Fla., outlasted No. 10 seed Aidan "Pass The" Mayo, who grew up in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the round of 16 in the USTA Boys 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich.

   No. 2 doubles seeds Sebastian Gorzny of Fountain Valley in the Los Angeles region and Ethan Quinn of Fresno, Calif., routed No. 16 seeds Brayden Michna of Taylor, Texas, and Nathan Cox of Lake Charles, La., 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.

   In the boys 16s in Kalamazoo, No. 2 seed Emon van Loben Sels of Sacramento beat unseeded Cayden Wang of Irvine, Calif., 6-4, 6-3 on Wednesday to reach Friday's quarterfinals.

   No. 4 seeds Dylan Tsoi of El Dorado Hills in the Sacramento area and van Loben Sels topped No. 4 seeds Kaylan Bigun and Meecah Bigun of Phoenix 6-4, 2-6 [10-4] today in the doubles quarterfinals.

   Meanwhile, No. 33 seed Valencia Xu of Livingston, N.J., dominated unseeded Gayathri Krishnan of Cupertino in the San Francisco Bay Area 6-2, 6-1 in the round of 16 in the girls 18s in San Diego. 

   In girls 18 doubles, No. 17 seeds Tsehay Driscoll of La Canada Flintridge in the Los Angeles area and Vivian Ovrootsky of San Jose, Calif., beat No. 16 seeds Emma Sun of Newbury Park in the L.A. region and Kathryn Treiber of Hinsdale, Ill., 6-2, 7-6 (5) in the round of 16.