Leylah Fernandez battled all the way back to pull off a gruelling three-tiebreak victory beating No. 3 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan at Washington Open
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WASHINGTON — Leylah Fernandez battled all the way back to pull off a gruelling, three-tiebreak victory and reach her first final in over a year, beating No. 3 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 6-7(2), 7-6(3), 7-6(3) in a 3-hour and 12-minute contest at Washington Open.
Rybakina had not lost serve through 7-6(2), 5-4, where she served for the match. Naturally, Fernandez had her exactly where she wanted her. Staring down a match game at 5-4 in the second set, Fernandez's cracking returns helped the Canadian earn her first service break of the day when she needed it most.
Once the third set hit, Fernandez was the sturdier player in rallies down the stretch. Bolstered by her never-say-die attitude, these returns and rally groundstrokes could lead Fernandez to her fourth career title, and her first since 2023 Hong Kong. All of her three career WTA singles titles have come on hard court, WTA reports.
Fernandez will next face Anna Kalinskaya, who eased past 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu 6-4, 6-3 in the day's second semifinal.
Also read: Raducanu, Shelton, Moutet, and Fernandez advance to Washington SF
DC Open is arguably Kalinskaya's best stop on tour. She holds a 9-2 main-draw win-loss record at the event and has never lost before the quarterfinals here, including a semifinal showing in 2019 as a qualifier ranked No. 160.
Kalinskaya went one further this year and is into her second career WTA singles final, following WTA 1000 Dubai and WTA 500 Berlin, both last year. After narrow losses in both of those finals, she has another opportunity to join the club of WTA singles titlists, according to WTA stats.
The summit clash is a huge chance for World No. 36 Fernandez and World No. 48 Kalinskaya, both of whom have previously been ranked inside the Top 20. This WTA 500 trophy would be the biggest career title for either of them -- in fact, Kalinskaya has yet to win a WTA singles title at all.
Fernandez narrowly defeated Kalinskaya in their only previous meeting, which was over four years ago. On the hard courts of Guadalajara in 2021, Fernandez squeaked past Kalinskaya 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.
De Minaur beats Moutet to reach Washington final
Alex de Minaur overcame an error-prone performance to halt the run of French lucky loser Corentin Moutet 6-4, 6-3 and advance to the final of the DC Open here on Sunday (IST).
By reaching the final, De Minaur passed Andrey Rublev at No. 10 in the ATP Live Rankings. Moutet, who came into the tournament as a lucky loser after losing in qualifying, has this week climbed 13 spots to No. 46 in the ATP Live Rankings, cracking the Top 50 for the first time in his career.
After winning 14 consecutive points to start the second set, De Minaur seemed to be coasting to victory but double faulted to drop serve at 4-1 and later failed to serve out the match at 5-2 in a game that started with a double fault.
In a more promising sign, De Minaur won 17 of 22 points at net, regularly approaching Moutet's weaker backhand wing with impunity, ATP reports.
"It wasn't pretty tennis, but I knew it was going to be a tricky match without a lot of rhythm," De Minuar said. "That's what he's able to do to opponents. I had the mentality of doing whatever it took to get into the title match tomorrow."
The Australian will need to sharpen his game ahead of final against Alejandro Davidovich Fokina after spraying 33 unforced errors, including 21 in the opening set, and 21 for the match on his backhand, according to ATP Stats.
Fokina completed a hat-trick of victories against American players, backing up victories over Learner Tien and top seed Taylor Fritz with a 6-2, 7-5 win over fourth seed Ben Shelton in the evening's second semi-final.
Fokina, hit just 10 winners but capitalised on Shelton’s 35 unforced errors, including seven double faults. The 12th seed backed up impressively after the previous night rallying from 2-5 in the third set to beat World No. 4 Fritz.
He became just the second Spanish finalist in Washington, following Alex Corretja’s surprise victory over five-time champion Andre Agassi 25 years ago in 2000.