Sofia Kenin beats Leylah Fernandez, advances to Guadalajara semifinals
Sep 22, 2023
Guadalajara [Maxico], September 22 : Former No.4 Sofia Kenin scripted a fine comeback to beat Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-1 to advance into the Guadalajara Open semifinals.
After winning the closely contested first set, Kenin trailed Fernandez 5-2 in the second set and did well to mount a comeback, saving two set points to push the set into a tiebreak. Kenin saved two more set points there before finally giving up, hitting a double fault to hand over the 81-minute set. Fernandez had 15 aces from her racquet and 14 double faults of her own.
Kenin quickly recovered. In the decisive set, she rediscovered her baseline range and took command of the match. The American broke Fernandez after saving a break chance in her opening service game, and she never faced another break point on her own serve after that.
The victory improved Kenin's head-to-head record against Fernandez to 2-0.
Kenin will next face another unseeded American Caroline Dolehide.
"Leylah played great. She started off really well in the second, and I almost came back, almost won it. I was kind of frustrated that I lost it, but she's a fighter, so I knew I needed to cool off and fight in the third," Kenin was quoted as saying by WTA.
World No.111 Dolehide saved four match points to defeat Martina Trevisan and reach the first WTA Tour semifinal of her career.
Dolehide has won two of her three professional meetings against Kenin, which all took place at ITF Challenger events in the United States. They have not faced off since 2017.
