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<\/p>\nCanadian Leylah Fernandez got off to a quick start and then had to battle to defeat Tereza Valentova of the Czech Republic 6-0, 5-7, 6-3 in the championship final of the Japan Women’s Open on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old Fernandez, of Laval, Que., needed only 28 minutes to win the first set, but then needed almost two more hours to close it out as the 18-year-old Valentova found her game at the Utsubo Tennis Center in Osaka.<\/p>\n
The victory was Fernandez’s second title of 2025 and the fifth of her career, after winning the Washington Open earlier this year.<\/p>\n
WATCH | Fernandez tops Valentova to win Japan Open:<\/p>\n
Fernandez captures 5th WTA career title with victory at Japan Open<\/p>\n
Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., is the champion at the Japan Open in Osaka defeating Tereza Valentova of Czech Republic 6-0, 5-7, 6-3.<\/p>\n
After the match, the Canadian thanked her coach and father, Jorge Fernandez, as well as her team and family.<\/p>\n
“Thank you so much for suffering with me this past week, past month and past year. I also want to thank my family and loved ones back home. Without you, I wouldn’t be here,” she said. “Without everyone’s sacrifices and support, I wouldn’t be on this stage, so thank you so much for all the love and motivation you’ve given me.”<\/p>\n
Fernandez finished with three aces, seven winners and only four unforced errors and two double faults.<\/p>\n
She won 43 points while receiving, compared to Valentova’s 31.<\/p>\n
Fernandez had a 70 per cent win percentage on first serve and 46 per cent on second serve. She saved five of nine break points, while Valentova saved nine of 16.<\/p>\n
Fernandez will stay in Japan to open the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo against Greece’s Maria Sakkari after her originally scheduled match with Toronto’s Victoria Mboko was changed following a draw update.<\/p>\n
Mboko will instead face Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., in an all-Canadian first-round matchup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadian Leylah Fernandez got off to a quick start and then had to battle to defeat Tereza Valentova…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-226012","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}