Laval’s Leylah Fernandez reached the second round of the French Open on Sunday with a three-set 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 victory over Poland’s Magda Linette, ranked 21e.
It was the second time in three matches that Fernandez had beaten Linette, and on each occasion she pulled off the feat on clay at Roland-Garros.
In 2020, also in a first round duel, Fernandez defeated Linette in three sets of 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Fernandez ignored some difficult service episodes, including his ball throw, to get the win. She notably committed nine double faults and only managed two aces during the match.
On the other hand, she was able to create 13 break chances and converted three of them, the last of which in the eighth game of the deciding set, which gave her a 5-3 lead.
In the first set, Fernandez quickly found herself in deficit when she lost her serve in the third game, allowing Linette to build a 2-1 lead. She responded with breaks in the sixth and eighth games.
PHOTO BENOIT TESSIER, REUTERS
Magda Linette
Fernandez also started the second set badly, conceding the first three games to the Pole, including the second when she was serving. Not only the Lavalloise could not recover this break, she conceded another one, during the sixth game to find herself faced with a 1-5 decline.
Fernandez double faulted only once in the decisive set and won 12 of 15 points after using his second serve.
In her next match, Fernandez will face the winner of the duel between Dane Clara Tauson and Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
In addition, three Canadians will play their first singles match on Monday, including Félix Auger-Aliassime, who will battle Italian Fabio Fognini.
Denis Shapovalov will also start his tournament on Monday, against American Brandon Nakashima, as will Rebecca Marino, who will cross swords with Russian Diana Shnaider.
As for Bianca Andreescu, she should play her first match on Tuesday against Victoria Azarenka.