Quebec’s Leylah Fernandez reached the quarterfinals of Roland Garros by defeating Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 on Sunday.
Finalist in New York last year, the 19-year-old Laval native managed 35 winning shots and limited herself to 17 direct fouls.
She got 6 breaks, bringing her total to 23 in four matches on the Parisian clay.
The Canadian won the junior title at Roland Garros in 2019. She is the fourth Canadian player to reach the tournament’s quarterfinals, the latest being Eugenie Bouchard in 2014.
Fernandez enjoyed an excellent start to the match, taking a 5-1 lead in the first set.
“It was a very complicated game,” Fernandez said on the field, quoted by the tournament’s website. Thank you very much to the public for coming to encourage me.
“Even before my victory in the juniors, I wanted to play on the Philippe-Chatrier court, in front of you. I’m very happy to be here and play another game.
Emma Raducanu defeated Fernandez in the final of the U.S. Open last year.
Seed number 17 in Paris, she will have as her next opponent Martina Trevisan, from Italy. They have never crossed swords.
Trevisan reached the quarterfinals for the second time in three appearances at the event. The 59th-ranked player won the last four games of her match against Aliaksandra Sasnovich, winning 7-6 (10), 7-5.
Trevisan has just earned his first WTA title in Rabat, Morocco. She is now at nine consecutive wins, including eight in two rounds.
Sasnovich, 47th, had ruled out Raducanu and Angelique Kerber in the previous two laps.
Coco Gauff is back in quarters
Like last year, Coco Gauff will be in the quarters at Roland Garros: the 18-year-old American dominated Belgium’s Elise Mertens, 6-4, 6-0, in less than an hour and 30 minutes, on Sunday.
In a first set that lasted almost an hour, Gauff, ranked 23rd in the world, did not leave a single game to his opponent.
The American, the youngest competitor still in the running, will face either her compatriot Sloane Stephens (64th) or the Swiss Jil Teichmann (24th).
Last year, Gauff, who had revealed himself in 2019 by reaching the 8th finals at Wimbledon at only 15 years old by coming out of qualifying, played Porte d’Auteuil in his first quarterfinals in Grand Slam.
She lost to the eventual winner, Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic.
This year, she admits to being much more relaxed, indicating that she has learned the lessons of her past defeats.
“I have confidence in myself, and I have confidence in my game. I feel like every game, I’m getting better… I want to enjoy the matches, have control of my tennis, and give the best of myself,” she said at a press conference.
