A down season is showing signs of life for Canada’s Leylah Fernandez. <\/p>\n
The timing could not be better for National Bank Open organizers nearly left without a domestic storyline at the tournament’s midway point. <\/p>\n
Fernandez booked a spot in the Round of 16 at the WTA Tour event Friday with a 6-1, 6-4 upset win over fifth-seeded Russian Mirra Andreeva. <\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve put in the work,” Fernandez said from Toronto. “I know physically I am strong. I know I can endure long rallies and long matches. So, if it’s going to take 100 balls to hit, to put it in, to break her down, then so be it.” <\/p>\n
The third-round victory was her first win over a top-10 opponent this season. She has split four career meetings with Andreeva, who has won three WTA titles this year. <\/p>\n
Fernandez, who reached the U.S. Open final in 2021, is the lone Canadian left in the field, singles or doubles, at the WTA 1000-level hard-court tournament. <\/p>\n
“Hearing that I’m the lone Canadian [left], of course there’s a little bit of pressure,” Fernandez said. “But also, a lot more motivation and reasons to keep going on the path that I am on.” <\/p>\n
Fernandez, the No. 30 seed, was in control for most of the match on a muggy, overcast afternoon at Sobeys Stadium. <\/p>\n
Andreeva struggled with unforced errors and couldn’t establish a rhythm against the crowd favourite from Laval, Que., who improved to 15-20 this season. <\/p>\n
‘She’s a fighter’<\/p>\n
Down 2-5 in the second set, Andreeva picked up her first break and then held serve to put some pressure on, but Fernandez would serve it out for the win in 80 minutes. <\/p>\n
“She’s a fighter,” Fernandez said. “She’s top 10 for a reason, top five for a reason. She’s won a Grand Slam for a reason. So, she wasn’t going to just hand over the match to me.” <\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, second-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan secured a spot in the Round of 16 with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over American Ann Li at Sobeys Stadium. <\/p>\n
Rybakina headlines the bottom half of the 96-player draw at the WTA Tour event. She saved two set points en route to the 90-minute victory. <\/p>\n
In the late-morning singles match, Russia’s Alina Korneeva upset 13th-seeded American Iva Jovic 6-3, 6-4. <\/p>\n
Fernandez, who improved to 1-4 against top-10 players, will face Japan’s Naomi Osaka in the fourth round. The 11th-seeded Osaka defeated Belgium’s Elise Mertens 6-1, 6-2 later in the day. <\/p>\n
The tournament was dealt a blow before it started when Canada’s Victoria Mboko confirmed she wouldn’t be able to defend her title due to a knee injury. <\/p>\n
Five Canadian wild-card singles entries fell in the first round and two others \u2014 Toronto’s Katherine Sebov and Kayla Cross of London, Ont. \u2014 lost in the second. <\/p>\n
Fernandez lost opening doubles match with sister<\/p>\n
All five Canadians in doubles made quick exits. Cross and Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., dropped a 6-4, 7-6 (3) decision to American Quinn Gleason and Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri on Friday afternoon. <\/p>\n
A day earlier, Fernandez and her sister Bianca Fernandez lost their opening match. Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski, the world No. 3. lost with Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova who was a late substitute for the injured Luisa Stefani of Brazil. <\/p>\n
With a vocal contingent of fans cheering Fernandez on for the mid-afternoon start, the Canadian broke Andreeva in the fourth game when she sailed a return long. <\/p>\n
Andreeva had few answers for the Canadian’s pressure and pace. Fernandez was aggressive and capitalized on her opportunities. <\/p>\n
She also became energized as the match continued while the 19-year-old Andreeva, four years younger than the Canadian, appeared frustrated at her inconsistency. <\/p>\n
“I’ve just got to keep working hard and keep having that mentality of fighting,” Fernandez said. <\/p>\n
Fourth-seeded American Coco Gauff defeated 29th-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece 6-1, 6-4 in Friday night’s showcase matchup. Gauff only needed one hour 16 minutes to bounce Sakkari. <\/p>\n
The late match was set to feature rising Filipino star Alexandra Eala, the No. 25 seed, and American Caty McNally. <\/p>\n
Play continues until Thursday at the$7.43 million US tournament. <\/p>\n
Shelton fires 6 aces against Belgium’s Bergs <\/p>\n
Ben Shelton’s National Bank Open title defence remained on track Friday. <\/p>\n
The fifth-seeded American cruised past Belgium’s Zizou Bergs 6-3, 6-2 in just over an hour on IGA Stadium’s Centre Court in Montreal to reach the fourth round of the Masters 1000 tennis tournament. <\/p>\n
Shelton, who won his maiden Masters 1000 title in Toronto last year, fired six aces and had yet to drop a set through his opening two matches. <\/p>\n
The world No. 10 was the highest-ranked player remaining in the draw. Just a dozen of the tournament’s 32 seeds remained, including only three of the top 10. <\/p>\n
Shelton also reached the fourth round of a Masters 1000 event for the first time in 2026 after failing to string together consecutive wins at any of the ATP’s signature tournaments. <\/p>\n
Both players held serve through the first five games Friday before Shelton broke in the sixth to take a 4-2 lead. He held serve the rest of the way to close out the opening set 6-3. <\/p>\n
The American broke again in the fifth game of the second set, aided by an ill-timed double fault and the third of the match from Bergs. <\/p>\n
Shelton then broke Bergs for a second time in the set to move within a game of victory before serving out the match. <\/p>\n
More NBO success for Griekspoor<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old Shelton meets either ninth-seeded Norwegian Casper Ruud or 19-year-old Brazilian Joao Fonseca in Sunday’s fourth round. <\/p>\n
Ruud and Fonseca were scheduled to meet Friday evening on Centre Court. <\/p>\n
Earlier Friday, Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor upset No. 30 seed and 2024 National Bank Open semifinalist Matteo Arnaldi 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. <\/p>\n
Griekspoor, who stunned top seed Alexander Zverev in the second round, reached the Round of 16 at a Masters 1000 event for the fifth time in his career and first time this season. <\/p>\n
His next opponent is 21-year-old Spaniard Daniel Merida, who defeated American Alex Michelsen 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-1 on Rogers Court. <\/p>\n
Merida has won nine of his last 10 matches since Wimbledon and reached the fourth round of a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time. The victory also propelled him into the ATP’s top 50 for the first time in his career. <\/p>\n
Friday evening’s session was also to feature No. 13 seed Jakub Mensik of Czechia against Frenchman Terence Atmane, and an all-American matchup of Learner Tien versus Tommy Paul. <\/p>\n
Australia’s Alexei Popyrin, the 2024 NBO Open champion, was also scheduled to face Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A down season is showing signs of life for Canada’s Leylah Fernandez. The timing could not be better…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-850013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}