Canada’s Leylah Fernandez advances to French Open quarter-finals
Leylah #Leylah
Canada’s Leylah Fernandez advanced to her first French Open quarter-finals appearance with a win on Sunday at Roland Garros.
The U.S. Open runner up took a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win over the United States’ Amanda Anisimova in just under two hours.
The 19-year-old from Montreal will take on Italy’s Martina Trevisan after she beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich, of Belarus, 7-6 (10), 7-5.
The 19-year-old Fernandez had more than twice as many winners, 35, as unforced errors, 17, and continued her run of impressive returning at the tournament. She broke Anisimova six times and now has won 23 of her opponents’ service games through four matches.
Fernandez had never won more than two consecutive main-draw matches on clay until this trip to Paris.
The Canadian made a breakthrough last year at the U.S. Open by making it all the way to the final before losing to Emma Raducanu in a matchup between a pair of unseeded teenagers.
Fernandez, the youngest player to win a WTA title in 2022, is seeded 17th at the French Open.
The 27th-seeded Anisimova was a semifinalist at Roland Garros in 2019 at age 17. The American eliminated four-time major champion Naomi Osaka in the first round this year.
Meanwhile, Fernandez’s next opponent has reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros for the second time in three appearances.
Trevisan won her first WTA title at Rabat the week before the French Open began and is now on a nine-match winning streak. Eight of those victories came in straight sets.
She was a qualifier ranked 159th in 2020 when she made a surprising run to the French Open quarterfinals before losing at that stage to eventual champion Iga Swiatek. This time, Trevisan will meet Leylah Fernandez or Amanda Anisimova for a semifinal berth.
Trevisan has lost in the first or second round in six other Grand Slam appearances.
The 47th-ranked Sasnovich beat major champions Angelique Kerber and Emma Raducanu to get to the fourth round in Paris.
Sasnovich has never made it to the quarterfinals in 28 career major tournaments.