MONTREAL (AP) — Coco Gauff overcame 14 more double-faults to beat Veronika Kudermetova of Russia 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 on Thursday in the National Bank Open.
Two days after surviving 23 double-faults and a third-set tiebreaker against fellow American Danielle Collins, the top-seeded Gauff rallied from a set and break down against Kudermetova to reach the round of 16.
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Victoria Mboko, of Canada, celebrates after her win over Marie Bouzkova, of Czechia, during third-round match action at the National Bank Open women's tennis tournament in Montreal, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)
Veronika Kudermetova returns a shot during third-round match action against Coco Gauff, of the United States, at the National Bank Open women's tennis tournament in Montreal, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Coco Gauff, of the United States, reacts during third-round match action against Veronika Kudermetova at the National Bank Open women's tennis tournament in Montreal, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Coco Gauff, of the United States, returns a shot during third-round match action against Veronika Kudermetova at the National Bank Open women's tennis tournament in Montreal, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Coco Gauff, of the United States, returns a shot during third-round match action against Veronika Kudermetova at the National Bank Open women's tennis tournament in Montreal, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Coco Gauff, of the United States, celebrates after defeating Veronika Kudermetova during third-round match action at the National Bank Open women's tennis tournament in Montreal, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Marta Kostyuk, of Ukraine, hits a return against Daria Kasatkina, of Australia, during the National Bank Open women’s tennis tournament, Thursday, July 31, 2025, in Montreal. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
“It was a tough match,” Gauff said. “I thought I did well mentally, especially on the return. I was playing an opponent that served really well. Obviously, I would like to serve better on my end, but overall, just happy to get through.”
Gauff, No. 2 in the world behind Aryna Sabalenka, entered the week having lost two straight matches since winning the French Open, falling in her opening matches in Berlin and Wimbledon.
“It does give positives that I am winning these matches having literally one part of my game on a crutch,” Gauff said. “If I can stand on both feet, then I can only imagine that it will be a lot more straight-forward and a lot easier for me.”
Graf set up a match with 18-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko, a 1-6, 6-3, 6-0 winner over Marie Bouzkova of Czechia in the night session.
Mboko is the last of the nine Canadians left.
“It was a very difficult match, I feel like, mentally and physically for me," Mboko said. “I’m just really happy to have come out with the win.”
McCartney Kessler of the United States upset fourth-seeded Mirra Andreeva of Russia 7-6 (5), 6-4. In the next round, Kessler will face Marta Kostyuk of the Ukraine. Kostyuk beat 15th-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Australia 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Dayana Yastremska of the Ukraine knocked off eighth-seeded Emma Navarro 7-5, 6-4 in a night match. She'll face ninth-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, a 6-0, 7-6 (5) winner over Jaqueline Cristian of Romania in the last match of the day.
Tenth-seeded Elina Svitolina beat Kamilla Rakhimova of Russia 7-5, 6-2.
AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis
Victoria Mboko, of Canada, celebrates after her win over Marie Bouzkova, of Czechia, during third-round match action at the National Bank Open women's tennis tournament in Montreal, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press via AP)
Veronika Kudermetova returns a shot during third-round match action against Coco Gauff, of the United States, at the National Bank Open women's tennis tournament in Montreal, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Coco Gauff, of the United States, reacts during third-round match action against Veronika Kudermetova at the National Bank Open women's tennis tournament in Montreal, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Coco Gauff, of the United States, returns a shot during third-round match action against Veronika Kudermetova at the National Bank Open women's tennis tournament in Montreal, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Coco Gauff, of the United States, returns a shot during third-round match action against Veronika Kudermetova at the National Bank Open women's tennis tournament in Montreal, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Coco Gauff, of the United States, celebrates after defeating Veronika Kudermetova during third-round match action at the National Bank Open women's tennis tournament in Montreal, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Marta Kostyuk, of Ukraine, hits a return against Daria Kasatkina, of Australia, during the National Bank Open women’s tennis tournament, Thursday, July 31, 2025, in Montreal. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
NUUK, Greenland (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has made an American takeover of Greenland a focus of his second term in the White House, calling it a national security priority while repeating false claims about the strategic Arctic island.
In recent comments, he has floated using military force as an option to take control of Greenland. He has said if the U.S. does not acquire the island, which is a self-governing territory of NATO ally Denmark, then it will fall into Chinese or Russian hands.
Here’s a closer look at the facts.
TRUMP, discussing the security situation in the Arctic: “We need that because if you take a look outside of Greenland right now, there are Russian destroyers, there are Chinese destroyers and, bigger, there are Russian submarines all over the place. We’re not gonna have Russia or China occupy Greenland, and that’s what they’re going to do if we don’t."
THE FACTS: Experts have repeatedly rebuffed Trump's claims of Chinese and Russian military forces lurking off Greenland's coastline. Experts say Russia instead operates in the Barents Sea, off the Scandinavian coast, and both China and Russia have a presence in the Bering Sea south of Alaska.
“That statement makes no sense in terms of facts,” said Andreas Østhagen, research director for Arctic and ocean politics at the Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Oslo, Norway. “There are no Russian and Chinese ships all over the place around Greenland. Russia and/or China has no capacity to occupy Greenland or to take control over Greenland.”
“The only Chinese I see is when I go to the fast food market,” Lars Vintner, a heating engineer told The Associated Press in Greenland's capital Nuuk. He said he frequently goes sailing and hunting and has never seen Russian or Chinese ships. Another Greenlander, Hans Nørgaard, told AP that Trump's claims are “fantasy.”
Lin Mortensgaard, an expert on the international politics of the Arctic at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said that while there are probably Russian submarines — as there are across the vast Arctic region — near Greenland, there are no surface vessels.
China has research vessels in the Central Arctic Ocean, and while the Chinese and Russian militaries have done joint exercises in the Arctic, they have taken place closer to Alaska, she said.
Asked about Trump’s claim that there are multiple Chinese and Russian ships and submarines around the island, Greenland business minister Naaja Nathanielsen responded Tuesday: "Not that we are aware of."
While Russia and China have an interest in the Arctic, “we don’t detect an actual threat," she said.
“America is still recognized as quite a big superpower,” Nathanielsen added, “and I don’t see any appetite from Russia or China to destabilize this.”
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TRUMP, discussing Denmark's defenses in Greenland: "You know what their defense is? Two dog sleds."
THE FACTS: The Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, an elite Danish naval unit that conducts long-range reconnaissance and enforces Danish sovereignty in the Arctic wilderness, is stationed in Greenland.
It's a key part of the Danish military infrastructure in the inhospitable Arctic terrain, experts say.
“Remember, transportation of the area is either by sea or by air. There are no highways,” said Steven Lamy, an international relations professor and Arctic security expert at the University of Southern California. “You can't basically get in a car or a Bradley vehicle or tank or anything and go up there. So they have dog sleds.”
In addition to these special elite forces, Denmark has several surface patrol ships and surveillance aircraft and the kingdom is moving to further strengthen its military presence around Greenland and in the wider North Atlantic. Last year, the government announced a roughly 14.6 billion-kroner ($2.3 billion) agreement with parties including the governments of Greenland and the Faroe Islands, another self-governing territory of Denmark, to “improve capabilities for surveillance and maintaining sovereignty in the region.”
The plan includes three new Arctic naval vessels, two additional long-range surveillance drones and satellite capacity.
Meanwhile, Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command is headquartered in Nuuk, the capital, and tasked with the “surveillance, assertion of sovereignty and military defense of Greenland and the Faroe Islands,” according to its website. It has smaller satellite stations across the island. Greenland also guards part of what is known as the GIUK (Greenland, Iceland, United Kingdom) Gap, where NATO monitors Russian naval movements in the North Atlantic.
The U.S. Department of Defense also operates the remote Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, which was built after the U.S. and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland Treaty in 1951. It supports missile warning, missile defense and space surveillance operations for the U.S. and NATO.
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TRUMP, discussing why Greenland is part of the Danish kingdom: “The fact that they had a boat land there 500 years ago doesn’t mean that they own the land. I’m sure we had lots of boats go there also.”
THE FACTS: The first humans arrived in northern Greenland circa 2,500 B.C., traveling from what is now Canada after the narrow strait separating the island from North America froze over. The Norse explorer Erik the Red arrived circa A.D. 985 with a fleet of Viking ships, according to the medieval Icelandic sagas.
In 1721, Lutheran missionary Hans Egede arrived in Greenland and ultimately began efforts to convert the Indigenous people to Christianity, marking the start of Denmark’s modern colonization of Greenland, which formally became a Danish colony in 1814. The U.S. government recognized Denmark’s right to the whole of Greenland more than a century later.
“It’s the same logic about the U.S. and sovereignty, right? You have a couple of boats arriving from Europe and now you own the United States of America,” said Østhagen, of the Fridtjof Nansen Institute. “The Indigenous population was there before you guys."
In 2009, Greenland became a self-governing country within the Danish kingdom. The island has a right to independence when requested by local voters.
International law has developed over the centuries, pivoting from land-grabbing colonial powers to modern-day treaties honoring borders largely developed after World War II.
Ulrik Pram Gad, a senior researcher and Arctic security expert at the Danish Institute for International Studies, said postwar it has remained important, especially to the U.S., for countries to refrain from exerting power over other territories.
“We shouldn’t just grab and go to war,” he said. “Rather, it should be peoples who have their self-determination.”
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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.
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Dazio reported from Berlin and Zhang reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
FILE - Coloured houses covered by snow are seen from the sea in Nuuk, Greenland, on March 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File)
FILE - Vice President JD Vance and second lady Usha Vance tour the U.S. military's Pituffik Space Base in Greenland, March 28, 2025. (Jim Watson/Pool via AP, File)
Pituffik Space Base is pictured as Vice President JD Vance visits, Friday, March 28, 2025, in Greenland. (Jim Watson/Pool via AP)
Houses covered by snow are seen on the coast of a sea inlet of Nuuk, Greenland, on Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
