Seeds Rybakina, Pegula and Gauff advance at WTA Toronto event

Second-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan defeated Daria Kasatkina of Australia to reach the third round of a WTA 1000 hardcourt tournament in Toronto (MATTHEW STOCKMAN)Second seed Elena Rybakina, third seed Jessica Pegula and fourth-seeded Coco Gauff advanced to the third round of the WTA 1000 tournament in Toronto on Wednesday.

>Australian Open champion Rybakina of Kazakhstan began her hardcourt run ahead of the US Open by outlasting Australian Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 after two hours and 33 minutes.

>World number two Rybakina began the match by hitting six consecutive winners and finished with 58 winners, 15 of them acers, and 58 unforced errors, 16 of them double faults.

>Rybakina hit back-to-back double faults to drop the second set and three double faults while serving for the match before advancing to next face 28th-seeded American Ann Li, who eliminated Canadian wildcard Kayla Cross 7-6 (7/2), 6-3.

>Pegula, who lost Monday in a rain-hit Washington final, was also extended to three sets before advancing with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 triumph over Poland's Magdalena Frech in two hours and three minutes.

>Next up for Pegula is a third-round match against Uzbekistan's Kamilla Rakhimova, who ousted when Czech Katerina Siniakova retired trailing 6-7 (1/7), 6-0, 5-2.

>Another American, two-time Grand Slam winner Gauff, cruised into the third round by dispatching compatriot Kayla Day 6-2, 7-5.

>World number five Mirra Andreeva also advanced in straight sets, the Russian teen cruising past Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-0, 6-2.

>js/ea