The final second round matches were played on Thursday at the $50,000 Saguenay National Bank Challenger and Canadian Sonja Molnar was trying to book her place in the quarter-finals.
After defeating her compatriot Petra Januskova in the first round, Molnar went up against France’s Julie Coin, who defeated top-seeded American Taylor Townsend. Coin continued her strong play, posting a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Molnar thanks to four breaks of serve. Coin is a regular on the Canadian Challenger circuit. She was a quarter-finalist at the Gatineau National Bank Challenger and a semifinalist in Granby this summer. In 2008, Coin scored the biggest win of her career, defeating then World No. 1 Ana Ivanovic at the U.S. Open. In Friday’s quarter-finals, the 31-year-old will face Austria’s Pia Konig.
Konig, ranked no. 429 in the world, played the feature night session match for the second day in a row. After knocking out Françoise Abanda last night, she beat Belgium’s Klaarjte Liebens in three sets 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-2 to reach the final eight. Konig is looking to win her first career Challenger title.
All four singles quarter-final matches as well as the doubles semifinals will be played on Friday in Saguenay.
