(Paris) About six weeks ago, Quebecer Leylah Fernandez and Ontarian Gabriela Dabrowski joined forces to win Canada the Billie-Jean-King Cup. Now, here they are, getting ready to be rivals.
Fernandez and Dabrowski will find themselves on either side of the net in a third round match of the French Open women’s doubles.
Dabrowski and his Brazilian partner Luisa Stefani, seeded eighth in the tournament, advanced to the next round on Friday with a three-set victory of 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 over the tandem of Dalma Galfi, from Hungary, and Katarzyna Piter from Poland.
The match was mostly down to service, with Dabrowski and Stefani only committing one double fault, compared to 15 for their opponents. Galfi and Piter only managed 49% of their first serves.
For their part, Fernandez and the American Taylor Townsend, 10e seeded converted five of their eight break chances en route to a convincing 6-2, 6-1 win over Taiwan’s Fang-Hsien Wu and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel.
Fernandez and Townsend have enjoyed success since they began their partnership last March. They reached the Miami Open final and the Madrid Open semi-finals, both WTA 1000 tournaments.
Dabrowski and Stefani have appeared in three quarter-final matches this season, including two at WTA 1000 tournaments.
In addition, Dabrowski also triumphed in mixed doubles, along with the American Nathaniel Lammons. In a first-round match, they got the better of the French duo of Chloé Paquet and Lucas Pouille 6-7 (3), 6-2 (10-8).
In the evening, Paris time, Ontarian Denis Shapovalov, 26e seeded, will appear on the Philippe-Chatrier court to face world number one, Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in a third round match.