Leylah Fernandez from Quebec made her comeback at the French Open tennis tournament in Paris on Sunday with flying colours.
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The 17th seed in the second Grand Slam tournament of the season defeated France’s Kristina Mladenovic in straight sets 6-0, 7-5. This duel lasted 85 minutes.
After dominating the first set, Fernandez experienced a slowdown and the 110th player on the world board won the first three games of the second period. She broke the Maple Leaf representative twice during this sequence.
The Montreal native came to her senses afterwards and scaled the slope to savor the win. The 19-year-old finished his match with an 80% success rate on his first serve. She also saved seven of Mladenovic’s nine break points.
In the second round at Roland-Garros Fernandez meets the Czech Katerina Siniakova, who defeated the Croatian Petra Martic 6: 4 and 7: 6 (6) the day before.
Fernandez and Siniakova know each other well having formed a doubles duo twice. They worked together in Paris last year. The two players have never faced each other in singles.
Rebecca Marino falls in the second set
After a tough battle with Cori Gauff in the opening set, Canada’s Rebecca Marino collapsed in the second and lost 5-7, 0-6 in the first round at Sunday’s French Open in Paris.
Marino, No. 116 in the WTA, was broken at 5-6 so all his efforts were wasted. However, she had not less than eight break points in the fifth game of the game but failed to put the finishing touches.
In the second set, which lasted 27 minutes, Marino offered almost no resistance.
Marino had to qualify to get into the peloton. She entered with confidence as she lost just 12 games in three games in wins over Paula Ormaechea, Katarina Zavatska and Seone Mendez.
Gauff, 18 and No. 18 in the world, reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in Paris last year and finished her clay-court season with a 16-4 record. This year the situation is a bit more complicated. She was actually eliminated in the third round in Madrid and Rome.
She now meets Belgium’s Alison Van Uytvanck (61st) in the second round with the firm intention of regaining her composure.