Leylah Fernandez overcame a late first-set deficit to defeat Rebecca Sramkova 7-6 (2), 6-3 in 1 hour and 34 minutes on Friday at the Kinoshita Group Japan Open in Osaka, advancing to the semifinals.<\/p>\n
Osaka: Scores<\/a> | Draws<\/a> | Order of play<\/a><\/p>\n The No. 4 seed trailed by a break late in the first set but broke back to force a tiebreak, which she won decisively. She fell behind again early in the second set, down 2-0, but responded by winning four straight games to take control.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was able to break back in the first set, that gave me momentum going into the tiebreaker,\u201d Fernandez said after the match. \u201cIn the second set, she started strong and I knew it was going to happen, but I\u2019m glad I stayed positive and continued putting pressure on her while enjoying the battle.\u201d<\/p>\n Fernandez will face either Viktorija Golubic or Sorana Cirstea for a spot in the final.<\/p>\n Serving showcase: Fernandez won just three more total points than Sramkova (52-49), with both players refusing to give up many points on serve, especially in the first set.<\/p>\n Fernandez saved a break point in the opening game and didn\u2019t face another until 5-5. Though she was broken then, she immediately broke back to force the tiebreak, where she came from a mini-break down to win it and further showcased her serving prowess.<\/p>\n She landed 68% of her first serves and won 67% of those points in the first set. She also won 54% of second-serve points and faced only two break points. She\u2019d go on to face only one more break point in the second set. Sramkova placed 53% of her first serves in the first set, winning 72% of those points and 50% on her second serve.<\/p>\n Fast starts fuel success: Fernandez has now won the opening set in five of her past six matches, including all three in Osaka.\u00a0<\/p>\n She\u2019s 23-3 record this season when winning the first set, closing out 21 of those victories in straight sets.<\/p>\n One of those three losses came against Sramkova in Mexico in August. On Friday, Sramkova again threatened a comeback, saving three match points while trailing 5-3 in the second set, but Fernandez sealed the win with one final break.<\/p>\n What\u2019s next: Friday\u2019s match marked just the second meeting with Fernandez and Sramkova, leveling their head-to-head at 1-1.<\/p>\n Fernandez will next face either Golubic, whom she has defeated twice, or Cirstea, who would be a first-time foe. Her most recent win over Golubic came last year in Birmingham, where she rallied from a set down. She also beat Golubic in straight sets in Monterrey in 2021.<\/p>\n A win in the semifinals would send Fernandez to her second final of the season and first since capturing the title in Washington, D.C., in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leylah Fernandez overcame a late first-set deficit to defeat Rebecca Sramkova 7-6 (2), 6-3 in 1 hour and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":230974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428,1959],"class_list":["post-230973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/230974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}