Top-seeded Coco Gauff beats Yafan Wang 6-4, 6-2 in Toronto in her first hard-court match since April

TORONTO (AP) — Top-seeded Coco Gauff routed Yafan Wang 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday in the second round of the National Bank Open.

Preparing for her U.S. Open title defense, Gauff played her first hard-court match since the Miami Open in April.

“It’s not easy transitioning from all these different surfaces in such a short amount of time,” said the 20-year-old American, coming off a third-round loss on clay in the Paris Olympics. “Happy to get pushed through.”

In the night session, second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, the Australian Open winner, beat Yue Yuan 6-2, 6-2.

“I wouldn’t say that I played my best tennis,” Sabalenka said. “Really happy that I was able to stay focused no matter what.”

Elise Mertens edged Naomi Osaka 6-3, 6-4 in a late match. Osaka, a former No. 1 player with four Grand Slam titles, is returning to form following maternity leave.

Earlier, fourth-seeded Jelena Ostapenko outlasted Paula Badosa 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2. Badosa won the Washington title Sunday in her comeback from a back injury.

No. 5 Daria Kasatkina, No. 6 Liudmila Samsonova, No. 8 Emma Navarro and No. 10 Anna Kalinskaya advanced. No. 7 Madison Keys retired from her match against Peyton Stearns because of a thigh injury while down 3-0 in the third set.

Kasatkina beat Amanda Anisimova 6-4, 6-3; Samsonova topped Moyuka Uchijima 6-4, 6-2; Navarro beat Magda Linette 6-2, 6-4; and Kalinskaya edged Lesia Tsurenko 6-2, 6-2.

Canadian Leylah Fernandez, seeded 15th, dropped out with a 6-4, 6-2 loss to qualifier Ashlyn Krueger. Marina Stakusic, a 19-year-old wild card from nearby Mississauga, was thumped 6-0, 6-2 by Taylor Townsend.

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Yue Yuan, of China, hits a backhand to Aryna Sabalenka, of Belarus, at the National Bank Open tennis tournament in Toronto, Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus returns the ball to Yue Yuan of China at the National Bank Open in Toronto on Thursday, August 8, 2024. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus hits a backhand to Yue Yuan of China at the National Bank Open in Toronto on Thursday, August 8, 2024. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Ashlyn Krueger celebrates after a break point against Leylah Annie Fernandez, of Canada, at the National Bank Open tennis tournament in Toronto, Thursday Aug. 8, 2024. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Marina Stakusic, of Canada, hits a forehand to Taylor Townsend at the National Bank Open tennis tournament in Toronto, Thursday Aug. 8, 2024. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

Leylah Annie Fernandez, of Canada, reacts during her match against Ashlyn Krueger at the National Bank Open tennis tournament in Toronto, Thursday Aug. 8, 2024. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

United States' Coco Gauff hits a return to China's Yafan Yang during the National Bank Open tennis tournament in Toronto , Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

United States' Coco Gauff tosses to serve to China's Yafan Yang during the National Bank Open tennis tournament in Toronto , Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

United States' Coco Gauff keeps her eyes on the ball during a match against China's Yafan Yang at the National Bank Open tennis tournament in Toronto , Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

United States' Coco Gauff hits a return to China's Yafan Yang during the National Bank Open tennis tournament in Toronto , Thursday, Aug. 8, 2024. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press via AP)

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The pagers used by Hezbollah that exploded in an apparent Israeli attack were made by a company based in Hungary, another firm said Wednesday as details of the mysterious operation began to emerge. The attack heightened the simmering conflict between Israel and Hezbollah that risks escalating into all-out war.

Pagers used by the militant group exploded nearly simultaneously a day earlier in Lebanon and Syria, killing at least 12 people, including two children, and wounding around 2,800. Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel.

An American official said Israel briefed the United States after the attack, in which small amounts of explosive hidden in pagers were detonated. The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the information publicly.

The sophisticated attack renewed fears that the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza could spill into a wider regional conflict. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday the U.S. is still assessing how the attack could affect efforts to negotiate a Gaza cease-fire.

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged fire almost daily since Oct. 8, the day after a deadly Hamas-led assault in southern Israel triggered the war. Since then, hundreds have been killed in the strikes in Lebanon and dozens in Israel, while tens of thousands on each side of the border have been displaced. Hamas and Hezbollah are allies and both are supported by Iran.

Despite periodic cycles of escalation, Hezbollah and Israel have carefully avoided an all-out war, but Israeli leaders have issued a series of warnings in recent weeks that they might increase operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel began moving more troops to its border with Lebanon on Wednesday as a precautionary measure, according to an official with knowledge of the movements who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The AR-924 pagers used in Tuesday's attack were manufactured by BAC Consulting KFT, which is based in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, according to a statement released by Gold Apollo, a Taiwanese firm that authorized the use of its brand on the pagers.

Gold Apollo's chair, Hsu Ching-kuang, told journalists Wednesday the firm has had a licensing agreement with BAC for the past three years.

“According to the cooperation agreement, we authorize BAC to use our brand trademark for product sales in designated regions, but the design and manufacturing of the products are solely the responsibility of BAC,” Gold Apollo said in a statement.

BAC Consulting Kft. was registered as a limited liability company in May 2022, according to its records. It has 7,840 euros in standing capital, the records showed, and had revenue of $725,768 in 2022 and $593,972 in 2023.

At the headquarters of a building in a residential neighborhood of Budapest, the names of multiple companies, including BAC Consulting, are posted on pieces of paper on a window.

A woman who emerged from the building and declined to give her name said the site provides headquarter addresses to various companies.

BAC's parent company is registered to Cristiana Rosaria Bársony-Arcidiacono, whose describes herself on her LinkedIn page as a strategic advisor and business developer. Among other positions, Bársony-Arcidiacono says on the page that she has served on the board of directors of the Earth Child Institute, a sustainability group. The group does not list Bársony-Arcidiacono as among its board members on its website.

The Associated Press has attempted to reach Bársony-Arcidiacono via the LinkedIn page and has been unable to establish a connection between her or BAC and the exploding pagers.

The attack in Lebanon started Tuesday afternoon, when pagers in their owners' hands or pockets started heating up and then exploding — leaving blood-splattered scenes and panicking bystanders.

It appeared that most of those hit were members or linked to members of Hezbollah — whether fighters or civilians — but it was not immediately clear if people with no ties to Hezbollah were also hit.

The Health Ministry said health care workers and two children were among those killed. In the village of Nadi Sheet in the Bekaa Valley, dozens gathered to mourn the death of one of the children, 9-year-old Fatima Abdullah.

Her mother, wearing black and donning a yellow Hezbollah scarf, wept alongside other women and children as they gathered around the little girl’s coffin before her burial.

Hezbollah said in a statement Wednesday morning that it would continue its normal strikes against Israel as part of what it describes as a support front for its ally, Hamas, and Palestinians in Gaza.

“This path is continuous and separate from the difficult reckoning that the criminal enemy must await for its massacre on Tuesday,” it said. “This is another reckoning that will come, God willing.”

At hospitals in Beirut on Wednesday, the chaos of the night before had largely subsided, but relatives of the wounded continued to wait.

Lebanon Health Minister Firas Abiad told journalists during a tour of hospitals Wednesday morning that many of the wounded had severe injuries to the eyes, and others had limbs amputated. Journalists were not allowed to enter hospital rooms or film patients.

Abiad said the wounded had been sent to various area hospitals to avoid any single facility being overloaded and added that Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria and Egypt offered to help treat the patients.

Earlier Wednesday, an Iraqi military plane landed in Beirut carrying 15 tons of medicine and medical equipment, he said.

Experts believe explosive material was put into the pagers prior to their delivery.

The AR-924 pager, advertised as being “rugged,” contains a rechargeable lithium battery, according to specifications advertised on Gold Apollo’s website before they were removed after the attack.

It claimed to have up to 85 days of battery life. That would be crucial in Lebanon, where electricity outages have been common after years of economic collapse. Pagers also run on a different wireless network than mobile phones, making them more resilient in emergencies — one of the reasons why many hospitals worldwide still rely on them.

For Hezbollah, the pagers also provided a means to sidestep what’s believed to be intensive Israeli electronic surveillance on mobile phone networks in Lebanon.

“The phone that we have in our hands — I do not have a phone in my hand — is a listening device,” warned Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in a February speech.

Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs said from the beginning of 2022 until August 2024, Gold Apollo has exported 260,000 sets of pagers, including more than 40,000 sets between January and August of this year. The ministry said that it had no records of direct exports of Gold Apollo pagers to Lebanon.

This story has been updated to correct the age of one of the children killed. She was 9, not 8.

Spike reported from Budapest and Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press journalists Abby Sewell and Kareem Chehayeb in Beirut; Simina Mistreanu in Taipei; Melanie Lidman and Josef Federman in Jerusalem; Zeke Miller in Washington; and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

Lebanese Red Cross ambulance passes next of the families of victims who were injured on Monday by their exploding handheld pagers, at the emergency entrance of the American University hospital, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Families of victims who were injured on Monday by their exploding handheld pagers, wait at the emergency entrance of the American University hospital, in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

This shows a sing featuring the names of several companies on the door of a house where a Hungarian company that allegedly manufactured pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria is headquartered in Budapest Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

This photo shows a door of a house where a Hungarian company that allegedly manufactured pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria is headquartered in Budapest Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

This photo shows a house where a Hungarian company that allegedly manufactured pagers that exploded in Lebanon and Syria, is headquartered in Budapest Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

Civil Defense first-responders carry a man who was wounded after his handheld pager exploded, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024.(AP Photo)

Hsu Ching-kuang, chairman of Apollo Gold, talks about the Taiwan company's communication products at the headquarters in New Taipei City, Taiwan Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Johnson Lai)

Hsu Ching-kuang, chairman of Apollo Gold, talks about the Taiwan company's communication products at the headquarters in New Taipei City, Taiwan Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Johnson Lai)

A police officer inspects a car in which a hand-held pager exploded, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

People gather outside the American University hospital after the arrival of several men who were wounded by exploded handheld pagers, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bassam Masri)

Lebanese soldiers stand guard at a street that leads to the American University hospital where they bring wounded people whose handheld pager exploded, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)