Quebec’s Leylah Fernandez is having an excellent week at the Hong Kong tennis tournament and continued her success on Friday by defeating young Czech Linda Fruhvirtova in the third round of the competition.
Thanks to a 7:6 (5) and 6:2 triumph after a match that lasted 1 hour and 42 minutes, the 60th player in the world secured her place in the semi-finals, where she will face Moscow’s Anna Blinkova, 37th ranked WTA circuit. The two women shared the honor of the two duels in which they competed against each other so far.
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Fernandez won 75.5% of contested points on her first serve, securing four of the five break points offered to her 18-year-old rival. Fruhvirtova, for her part (88th), conceded the break three times on seven occasions.
The Canadian athlete has been regaining her strength of late, particularly with her participation in the quarterfinals of the tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico, in September. She had defeated two members of the top 50, the Belgian Elise Mertens and the American Emma Navarro. In Hong Kong she beat Victoria Azarenka by one round before throwing in the towel in the first round.