Seeds Rybakina, Pegula and Gauff advance at WTA Toronto event

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.