Thursday's on-court action in Washington, which hosts the WTA 500 Mubadala DC City Open, was strongly interrupted by the rain conditions. Despite this, 7 out of 8 matches of the second round got completed before Friday, which is scheduled to be a day of quarterfinals. The line-up for those is absolutely stacked with a delightful weekend of highest level tennis to follow for the fans on-site and in front of the TV screens.

One-way traffic

The outcome of second round's matches is quite unusual, as all the completed matches got settled in straight sets. No one of those delivered any kind of marathon-like three-setters, plot twists or all the drama related to the tight matches which are being decided by the details. Only two of matches lasted more than 80 minutes with the longest one being just 97 minutes long.

8th in a row for Svitolina

The match between Elina Svitolina and Daria Kasatkina was this longest one mentioned above, despite the fact, that the Ukrainian eliminated the 5th seed with a dominant score 6-2 6-2. "Dominant" is a correct way to name not just the course of this single match, but whole the story of duels between both, as it was Svitolina's eight victory over Kasatkina in their eight professional meeting. The post-match stats does not reflect the score, as the Russian had her chances in both sets. Svitolina held two long service games in this match, where she survived the pressure from Kasatkina. The first one happened at the end of first set, when the Ukrainian defended 6 breakpoints to close the set on her favour despite being 0-40 at this game. Another one came in second set, when Svitolina saved 4 breakpoints to held the super-long service game, which gave her the 5-1 advantage after 11 deuces. Kasatkina created more breakpoints (10 to 9), but not converted any of those. Both the games happened in a situation, when Svitolina had already double break advantage in a set, quickly and effectively running away with a score, which gives her 4th advance into QFs in 2023.


Kostyuk eliminates Garcia

At the end of Thursday there are just two seeded players, who are already eliminated from the tournament. Both lost their second round's matches to the Ukrainian players, as the second seed Caroline Garcia got upset by Marta Kostyuk. It was an ultimate performance showed by Kostyuk, who gave just no chance for the French, who created just one single breakpoint during the one-sided match ended up with a score 6-2 6-3 after just 65 minutes. It's a 4th quarterfinal appearance for Kostyuk this year and first one since the start of March, when she took her maiden WTA title in Austin. The pressure grows up for Garcia, who will defend a ton of points earned during her flawless finish of the 2022 season, which resulted with an advance into top 10 and winning the WTA finals at the end of previous season.


Reigning champion on fire

Liudmila Samsonova plays a flawless tennis so far in the tournament, where she defends the title won there in Washington DC last year. After a convicing victory over Danielle Collins in first round, Samsonova followed the blow in next match, winning against Sorana Cirstea with the same score as against Collins, 6-1 6-3. The 8th seed is still yet to lose a single service game, as she did not need to face even any one breakpoint against Cirstea in a match which lasted just 60 minutes.

Three Americans in the quarters

Second round was a successful one for the favorites of home crowd, as three US players, who are seeded in the main draw, are still in contention. All of them advanced into QF after winning their all-American second round's clashes. Jessica Pegula and Cori Gauff received a bye in first round and started their Washington's campaign from round of 16. Pegula defeated Peyton Stearns, who appeared in main draw as a lucky loser. The top seed won 6-3 6-4. Cori Gauff started the tournament from 6-1 6-4 victory over Hailey Baptiste. Madison Keys played against Jennifer Brady, who impressed with her great comeback while winning the main draw match after two years of absence due to an injury. The match started well for Brady, who was leading after an early break, but lost the opening set by 4-6. The second one was less competitive, as Keys raised up the level and did not give away any single game for the mate, with whom she also performed in the doubles tournament there in Washington.