GUADALAJARA, Mexico — Canadian tennis star Leylah Fernandez has a singles date in the final 16 at the Guadalajara Open after knocking off 13th-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium on Tuesday.
Fernandez, of Laval, Quebec, defeated Mertens 6-3, 6-4 in the WTA 1000 tournament and will play Emma Navarro of New York, who defeated American Madison Keys 6-2, 7-6 (5) on Tuesday night.
Fernandez and Mertens each had three aces in the one-hour, 34-minute match. Mertens had eight double faults while Fernandez had five. Fernandez saved four of 11 break points while her opponent saved two of six.
After a two-hour break, Fernandez was back on court playing women's doubles. Fernandez and partner Taylor Townsend of Chicago defeated American Peyton Stearns and Ons Jabeur of Tunisia 6-4, 6-4 in a round-of-16 match that took one hour, 23 minutes to play.
In other women's doubles action, U.S. Open champions Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and partner Erin Routliffe of New Zealand survived a scare against Arantxa Rus of Netherlands and Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine, winning 6-3, 4-6, 11-9 in a round-of-16 match that took one hour, 28 minutes to complete.
Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., and her partner Maria Fernanda Navarro Olivia of Mexico lost 4-6, 6-7 (6) to Tereza Mihalikova of Slovakia and her partner Xu Yifan of China earlier in the day.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2023.
The Canadian Press