Leylah Fernandez

There will be other struggles but champions tend to be the players who always find their game again. The Canadian defeated reigning Olympic gold medallist ...

Bencic served a higher percentage (69 per cent to 57 for Fernandez) but the young Canadian won a higher percentage of first-serve points. To get to the second week on the tricky red clay of Roland Garros can only boost Fernandez’s confidence. - After losing the second set and all the momentum, she jumped ahead with a service break in the third to lead 5-3, and was serving for the match at 5-4. “It was tough match, particularly when I have to get used to playing in a venue that’s this big,” Fernandez said. - Instead, Fernandez broke the Swiss star, then served out the match to capture her biggest triumph of 2022. It was a bumpy roller-coaster outing for Fernandez, but in the end she came out on top — 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 — in a hard-fought match that lasted nearly three hours. The 27th seeded Anisimova advanced after Karolina Muchova retired with an injury in the third set. Since rocketing into prominence last year, Fernandez has added major sponsors Lululemon and Morgan Stanley, all while dealing with new expectations. That and a willingness to bring the audience into the match were all indications Fernandez has found her game again in the second major of the year. I’m really happy to play my game and to play so well in Paris.” It’s just that, well, after her thrilling success at Flushing Meadows, we all kind of expected she would deliver more of the same immediately. Of course, that’s kind of a ridiculous statement, isn’t it?