Puig advances to quarter-finals of Quebec City WTA event

Puerto Rico's Monica Puig has advanced to the quarter-finals of the Coupe Banque Nationale, moving through when American Madison Brengle retired from the match while trailing 7-5, 3-0.

The third seed and reigning Olympic tennis women's singles gold medalist trailed 5-1 in the first set of that second-round contest, but she proceeded to win nine games in a row before Brengle was forced to stop due to a right-hand injury, reports Efe news.

"I felt like I was forcing a bit too much when I needed to build the point a little bit more," Puig, referring to her slow start, was quoted as saying on the WTA's website on Wednesday.

"The most important thing is that I was able to regroup and come back and fight my way out of that first set. I was a little bit more patient with my strokes ... until I found an opportunity to do what I needed to do," she added.

Also booking a spot in the final eight of this hard-court WTA event on Wednesday were France's Pauline Parmentier, the United Kingdom's Heather Watson and American Varvara Lepchenko.

The eighth-seeded Parmentier edged American Christina McHale 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, Watson defeated Canadian wildcard Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 7-5 and Lepchenko followed up her first-round upset of top-seeded Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka by overcoming Czech qualifier Marie Bouzkova 6-1, 1-6, 6-3.

In two first-round matches on Wednesday, second-seeded Croatian Petra Martic routed the UK's Naomi Broady 6-1, 6-1 and fifth-seeded American Sofia Kenin got past Germany's Mona Barthel 6-3, 6-4.

--IANS

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