WASHINGTON — Canada’s Leylah Fernandez superior to her first semifinal of the season with a 6-4, 7-6 (4) win over American qualifier and former doubles associate Taylor Townsend on Friday on the Citi Open hardcourt tennis event.
Fernandez performed an aggressive return sport in opposition to Townsend and had 23 break-point probabilities, changing 5.
Nonetheless, Fernandez solely completed the sport one break forward after defending simply three of the seven break-point probabilities she confronted.
Fernandez, who superior to the quarterfinals with a win Thursday over top-seed Jessica Pegula, seemed to be battling cramps within the second set, however held on to win the second set tiebreak.
The 22-year-old from Laval, Que., will subsequent face the winner of a match later Friday between third-seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan or fifth-seed Magdalena Frech on Poland.
The Canadian is rounding into kind on the proper time, with the primary draw of the ladies’s Nationwide Financial institution Open offered by Rogers kicking off Sunday in Montreal.
Fernandez joins Britain’s Emma Raducanu within the semifinals in Washington. It is the primary time they’ve been within the ultimate 4 of a event since they met within the ultimate of the 2021 U.S. Open, which Raducanu received in straight units.
Fernandez and Townsend had success as a doubles tandem in the course of the 2023 season. Whereas they didn’t win a title, they made it to the ultimate of the French Open and the WTA 1000 Miami Open, in addition to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open.
