Fernandez stays hot
Raising her right fist overhead to celebrate shot after shot, 18-year-old Leylah Fernandez demonstrated that her upset of defending champion Naomi Osaka at the U.S. Open was certainly no fluke by beating another past title winner at Flushing Meadows.
With grit and guile, and a veteran’s poise in the face of a big deficit against a much more accomplished opponent, the unseeded Fernandez grabbed the last five games to beat 2016 champion Angelique Kerber 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 in the fourth round Sunday in Louis Armstrong Stadium.
“At the end it, was just two, three points which decide the match,” the 16th-seeded Kerber said. “She took it in her hands.”
Just like against Osaka in Arthur Ashe Stadium two nights earlier, Fernandez dropped the opening set. Just like against Osaka, Fernandez trailed in the second set, too — this time, Kerber led by a break at 4-2.
But for the second match in a row on a big court, the 73rd-ranked Canadian got the crowd on her side, exulting each time she hit one of her on-the-run, impossibleangle groundstrokes. She’d pump a fist. She’d windmill her arms. And she got to do so repeatedly, ending up with a 45-28 edge in winners.
How does Fernandez remain steady in these tight matches against foes who’ve been through these sorts of moments much more than she has?
“I honestly don’t know,” Fernandez said. “I just try to use all my training from back home. They told me to take it point by point.”
Fernandez is a left-hander who redirects opponent’s shots swiftly and seemingly with ease, sometimes dropping to a knee near the baseline to get the proper leverage. That’s a very similar style to the one Kerber used to reach No. 1 in the rankings and claim three Grand Slam titles.
“She’s always ... enjoying her tennis out there,” Kerber said. “I think she can go really far in the next few years.”
Kerber would know. She has won more matches at the U.S. Open — and at all Grand Slam tournaments — than any other woman in the draw. She is 33 and has been playing well enough to get to the Wimbledon semifinals in July.
But she could not stay with Fernandez and seemed bothered by it, looking over at her guest box with arms spread apart while muttering something in the final game.