Wild Canadian Open Crowd?s Love for Tennis Impresses Serena Williams? Former Coach as She Delivers Exhilarating Reaction to a Thrilling Friday Night

Spectators present at the National Bank Open in Montreal, Canada, got to witness one of the most exciting tennis matches in recent memory as Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina squared off against Russia’s Daria Kasatkina in a high-voltage quarterfinal encounter. The last of the quarterfinal matches turned out to be the most thrilling one. Rybakina got the better of Kasatkina 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (8) in an epic match that continued way past midnight. Fans and spectators remained fully invested till the very end as the match was filled with twists and turns.

Rennae Stubbs, former Australian tennis star and longtime coach of the legendary Serena Williams, couldn’t help but appreciate the involvement of the crowd during Elena Rybakina and Daria Kasatkina’s match, despite the odd timing of its conclusion. What exactly was Stubbs’ reaction? Let’s find out.

Ex-coach of Serena Williams amazed by Montreal spectators as Elena Rybakina wins epic late-night encounter

World Number 4 Elena Rybakina battled past Daria Kasatkina in a marathon match that lasted 3 hours and 27 minutes. Starting late on Friday night, the quarterfinal concluded at 2:55 am on Saturday morning, making it one of the 10 longest WTA matches of this season so far. The 2022 Wimbledon champion saved a match point during the 3rd set tie-break before finally edging out her Russian opponent in a thrilling fashion. The fans present at the stadium showed their deep love for the sport as they stayed all the way through till the end, remaining engrossed in the proceedings of the match.

Rennae Stubbs, who was part of Serena Williams’ coaching team for a long period, lauded the crowd for showing unwavering enthusiasm throughout the long drawn-out course of the match. Through a string of tweets, she hailed the fans. “This match ?????”, she tweeted, referring to the exhilarating nature of the match. She further added, “??????? holy sh-t! Like who wants this match more! 3 hours 30 min at 252am in the morning!!”.

Stubbs highly appreciated the involvement of the crowd. She exclaimed: “And these fans!!! Holy cow u people deserve a free ticket tomorrow!!!”

Quite unsurprisingly, the physically demanding nature of the match forced every ounce of energy out of the third-seeded Kazakh. But she didn’t forget to thank the energetic crowd after the end of her match.

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Rybakina expresses gratitude to fans after nail-biting victory

Elena Rybakina and Daria Kasatkina broke each other’s serve a whopping 20 times in the course of their match. Only an epic tiebreaker in the deciding set could separate the two players eyeing a spot in the Canadian Open semifinals. After her memorable win, an exhausted Rybakina thanked the spectators in her post-match interview. ?I?m destroyed, guys. Thank you for staying so late. It?s really amazing you supported us..?, she said.

Rybakina will now face another Russian, Liudmila Samsonova in the semifinals. It goes without saying that she will aim to bag the 6th WTA title of her career by winning the National Bank Open trophy in Montreal. If the matches continue being as exciting as this one, fans surely won’t mind staying up all night to cheer for their favorite tennis stars!

Do you think Rybakina will deliver and make it to the finals? Let us know in the comments below.

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