Unlike Bianca Andreescu, Leylah Fernandez was unable to secure her ticket to the knockout stages of the Rome tournament on Wednesday.
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The Quebecer was defeated by the Russian Daria Kasatkina in three sets of 4-6, 6-3 and 7-6 (2). It was the second encounter of the 18th player in the world on Italian clay, since she benefited from a pass for the first round of this competition.
To defeat the 23rd ranked athlete in the WTA, Fernandez showed some perseverance. This was particularly the case in the 10th game of the first set, where she ended the engagement on her fourth set point.
Unable to win on serve afterwards, the 19-year-old was broken twice in the second set and saw her opponent level the score.
Fernandez, however, came back strong in the third set, breaking Kasatkina in the seventh game. The winner, however, took back her due as soon as she got the chance. In the tiebreaker, the Russian took off on the fourth point and didn’t look back afterward.
Earlier in the day, Andreescu defeated Spain’s Nuria Parrizas Diaz in straight sets 6-3, 7-6(4) in their Round of 16 clash.
The Canadian notably experienced a slump at the start of the second set and trailed 0-3. However, she found a way to come back from behind and forced a tiebreaker.
Andreescu managed to take the serve of her rival four times in as many break opportunities. She also saved nine of the 12 break points that the 51st athlete on the world board had offered herself.
In possession of the balls, the 21-year-old Ontarian put into play 61% of her first balls and won 67% of the exchanges disputed on them. She hit an ace and committed three double faults.
“I feel like I played well,” Andreescu told the WTA website. I used several good strategies, but she did the same thing. She was in a way the one who was able to raise her level of play the most in the important moments.
In the round of 16, Andreescu has an appointment with the Croatian Petra Martic. The representative of the maple leaf has not reached this stage of a tournament since the Strasbourg event in May 2021.
Meanwhile, Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her partner, Mexico’s Giuliana, defeated Kazakhs Anna Danilina and Ekatarina Alexandrova 7-5, 3-6, 10-7 in the round of 16. The representative of the maple leaf and her teammate are the second seeds of the women’s doubles in Rome.
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