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Leylah Annie Fernandez overthrows the 21st seed at Roland-Garros

The difficulties in the service which Fernandez suffered during this match almost cost him the victory. The 20-year-old limited the waste in the third set to finally overthrow the 21st seed in France, after 2h 11m on the Simonne-Mathieu court.

It was a very difficult match, admitted the Canadian. She played very well, but I think what made the difference was my behavior, I was very positive in difficult times.

Fernandez did it again to Linette, as in the 2020 edition, where she had indicated the exit door to the Pole in the first round of Roland-Garros.

It is in her case only a second gain in 10 clashes this season against a player in the world’s top 50. His only victory in this chapter before today came in the first round of the Australian Open in January against the French Alizé Cornet, then 34th in the WTA rankings.

Linette quickly got the upper hand over Fernandez in the third game of the opening frame when she signed the break, before confirming on serve to lead 3-1. The Quebecer was quick to return the favor, moreover, twice rather than once. She won the next five games, en route to getting the first act.

Leylah Annie Fernandez

Photo : Getty Images / Julian Finney

Fernandez’s happy streak came to an abrupt end early in the second set. The Pole pocketed the first three games and was not really worried afterwards in this engagement.

The 49th player in the world regained her ease in the final third. Each of the athletes kept their serve until the eighth game, during which Linette had the balls in hand. Fernandez recorded the biggest steal of the game to widen the gap to 5-3 in his favour. She concluded the match a few minutes later.

Today, I am happy to have been able to accept my mistakes. This is an aspect that we have worked on a lot this year. Double faults or ball throws that are not perfect happen to all players. It helped me a lot to be able to find solutions during the third round.

The Montrealer picks up in a way where she left off a year ago in Paris. Diminished by an injury, she could not do herself justice in the quarter-finals against the Italian Martina Trevisan. His physical glitch in the right foot had caused him to miss two months of activities, including Wimbledon.

Over the past two months, Fernandez has played five competitions on clay in preparation for Roland-Garros. His results, however, were not there: a four aces of an ITF tournament against four eliminations among the first two rounds of a WTA competition.

The 20-year-old admits that she now has to apply in matches what she has achieved in training.

I always improve in training, but in tournaments, I have bad luck with the draw or I make mistakes that cost me the match, analyzes Fernandez. I see a progression in training and I believe the results will come one day, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Denmark’s Clara Tauson, 127th and qualifying, will be Fernandez’s next opponent in the second round at Porte d’Auteuil. To do so, the 20-year-old handily defeated Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 6-0.

Two other Canadian rackets are in the women’s singles main draw, Bianca Andreescu and Rebecca Marino. The first has an appointment with Belarusian Victoria Azarenka on Tuesday, and the second will cross swords with Russian Diana Shnaider on Monday.

Exit Mary Sakkari

The Greek Maria Sakkari, ranked 8th in the world and semi-finalist in 2021, was eliminated from the start in two sets of 6-7 (5/7) and 5-7 by the Czech Karolina Muchova, 43rd in the WTA.

It’s a bit of deja vu! It was almost the same score, I’m happy to have finished in two runscommented Muchova, referring to the second round match played last year at Roland Garros, where she had already beaten Sakkari, but in two tiebreakers.

Sakkari has not made it past the third round of a grand slam since meeting in the Round of 16 at the 2022 Australian Open.

Muchova, who reached the semi-finals in Melbourne in 2021 but has never made it past the third round at Roland-Garros in four appearances, will face Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska, 101st and semi-finalist in Paris in 2020.

Stefanos Tsitsipas narrowly escapes him

Unlike his compatriot, Stefanos Tsitsipas for his part qualified in the second round, but was hot against the Czech Jiri Vesely whom he finally dismissed 7-5, 6-3, 4-6 and 7-6 (9 /7).

<q data-attributes="{"lang":{"value":"fr","label":"Français"},"value":{"html":"Ç'a été assez stressant. Mais je me suis dit: “no chance of going to the fifth inning””,”text”:”It was quite stressful. But I said to myself: “no chance of going to the fifth round””}}”>It was quite stressful. But I said to myself: “no chance of going to the fifth inning”said the Greek, who had to save four set points in the tiebreaker, before concluding on his first match point.

I’m not going to lie, he gave me a lot of trouble. This victory is very important to meadded the 5th player in the world, about the 455th, who has come a long way.

Aged 24, the finalist for the 2021 edition, who is one of the main favorites for a private tournament by Rafael Nadal, will find Spaniard Roberto Carballes (57th) on his way to the next round.

Facing Vesely, who was still ranked 66th last August but dropped in the standings with a hamstring injury, Tsitsipas was hung up in the first set, where he was broken to trail 1-3.

The 29-year-old Czech, who hasn’t played on the main circuit since the 2022 U.S. Open and played just two Challenger tournaments since returning to competition in April, served for the round at 5-4, but Tsitsipas chained three games, including two breaks, to obtain the commitment.

He then dominated the second set, but suffered the only steal in the third to allow Vesely to regain hope.

The latter then stood up to the Greek in the fourth act and even got four set points in the tiebreaker, including three in a row at 6-6 (6/3), without managing to achieve one of between them.

In addition, the Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime will face the Italian Fabio Fognini on Monday, while his compatriot Denis Shapovalov will battle with the American Brandon Nakashima during the same day.

Other first-round results:


Women

  • Nadia Podoroska (ARG) beat Jessika Ponchet (FRA) 6-0, 6-2
  • Elise Mertens (BEL/no 28) bat Viktória Kuzmová (SVK) 6-1, 6-4
  • Camila Giorgi (ITA) beat Alizé Cornet (FRA) 6-3, 6-4
  • Storm Sanders (AUS) bat Nuria Parrizas (ESP) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4
  • Zheng Qinwen (CHN/no 19) one by Tamara Zidans (SLO) 6-3, 6-1
  • Magdalena Frech (POL) bat Zhang Shuai (CHN/no 29) 6-1, 6-1
  • Kamilla Rakhimova (RUS) beat Sára Bejlek (CZE) 6-0, 6-3
  • Iryna Shymanovich (BLR) beat Panna Udvardy (HUN) 6-7 (6/8), 6-3, 6-1
  • Aryna Sabalenka (BLR/no 2) bat Marta Kostyuk (UKR) 6-3, 6-2

Men

  • Matteo Arnaldi (ITA) beat Daniel Galan (COL) 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-2
  • Jason Kubler (AUS) bat Facundo Diaz (ARG) 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1
  • Sebastian Ofner (AUT) bat Maxime Cressy (USA) 6-4, 7-6 (8/6), 6-2
  • Sebastian Korda (USA/no 24) bat Mackenzie McDonald (USA) 6-4, 7-5, 6-4
  • Nuno Borges (POR) bt John Isner (USA) 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 7-6 (11/9)
  • Roberto Carballés (ESP) beats Emilio Nava (USA) 7-6 (7/5), 6-3, 6-2
  • Márton Fucsovics (HUN) beat Hugo Grenier (FRA) 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3
  • Tallon Griekspoor (NED) bat Pedro Martinez (ESP) 6-4, 2-6, 0-6, 7-5, 6-3
  • Hubert Hurkacz (POL/no 13) bat David Goffin (BEL) 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4
  • Karen Khachanov (RUS/no 11) beats Constant Lestienne (FRA) 3-6, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3
  • Radu Albot (MDA) beat Patrick Kypson (USA) 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1
  • Thanasi Kokkinakis (AUS) bat Daniel Evans (GBR/no 20) 6-4, 6-4, 6-4

2023-05-28 17:03:45
#Leylah #Annie #Fernandez #overthrows #21st #seed #RolandGarros

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