Leylah Fernandez was never able to find the solution to the Iga Swiatek enigma and lost heavily 6-1 and 6-2 in front of the Polish, ninth player in the world, Wednesday evening (Quebec time) in Adelaide, Australia.
The task was certainly difficult for the Quebecer, promoted to 24th place in the world thanks to her performances in recent months.
But Leylah had accustomed her fans to little miracles against the best racquets since her journey to the US Open final in September.
In New York, she had beaten the four favorites she had faced. She did it again a few weeks later by eliminating the ninth seed, the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, in Indian Wells. Her run ended in the round of 16, against American Shelby Rogers.
The opening games of Wednesday’s match heralded another good fight, less than 48 hours after the 19-year-old defeated Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova, 34th in the world, in her first meeting of the year.
But Swiatek, Roland-Garros 2020 champion, quickly picked up the pace. She broke Laval for the first time in the fourth game and then went off with the sleeve.
Perilous at the service
Throughout the showdown, Fernandez struggled on serve, an aspect of his game that will remain to be tweaked.
She won just 58% of the points on her first serve and had a weak 26% success on her second ball, her face-offs being easily brought into the field by the fifth-seed.
Leylah also committed five double faults, against none for her opponent.
The second round quickly took on the same gait as the first. Often overflowing Fernandez, 20-year-old Swiatek broke to 1-1.
Throughout the match, the Polish was as intractable on her serve as she was in return. The Quebecker did not benefit from any breakage bullet throughout the game.
A very different scenario from the one she experienced in the initial round, when Fernandez was the one who had offered no chance to break.
Reigning champion
Swiatek took advantage of her first three match points at 5-1, on Leylah’s serve, but the latter showed the tenacity that has characterized her in recent months, managing to erase them all.
Fernandez saved another match point in the next game, but the damage was done. The Polish closed the books with a final winning forehand. The confrontation lasted only 1 h 14 min.
Swiatek, defending champion in Adelaide, will now face the winner of the duel between Australia’s Priscilla Hon and Belarusian Victoria Azarenka.