Fernandez Reaches Cincinnati Doubles Final; Loses Singles Thriller to Pegula

Photo : Gyles Dias/Tennis Canada

Leylah Annie Fernandez brought her great doubles form from Toronto to Cincinnati as she will play for a WTA 1000 title on Sunday after she and Yulia Putintseva defeated Linda Noskova and Diana Shnaider in the semifinals on Saturday in straight sets.

The win came mere hours after Fernandez nearly completed an epic comeback in the singles quarter-finals, but ultimately came up just short in a third-set tiebreak against Jessica Pegula.

Playing her second WTA 1000 doubles semifinal in a row, Fernandez was able to keep her foot on the gas as she and Putintseva never trailed. While they had some difficulty at the end of both sets, they were able to advance with a 6-3, 6-4 win.

Fernandez and Putintseva faced pressure in their opening service game but managed to hang on. They went to work on return not long after, breaking for a 3-1 lead. While the final games saw a flurry of break points, including as the Canadian-Kazakhstani pair served for it at 5-3, that proved to be the only successful break in the opening set.

In that final game, Fernandez and Putintseva had to save a pair of break points, including one on a deciding point at deuce which served as both a break and set point. They were able to win it to wrap up the opener.

The pair then got off to a dream start in the second, breaking in the opening game and adding a second break as they raced to a 5-1 lead.

Closing once again proved challenging in the second set. They were broken the first time they attempted to serve out the match at 5-2 and then failed to convert their first match point on a deciding point that allowed Noskova and Shnaider back within a game. But at the second time of asking, Fernandez and Putintseva had no trouble, holding to 15 and converting their first match point on their own serve.

Awaiting them in Sunday’s doubles final is the third-seeded tandem of Erin Routliffe and Asia Muhammed. It will be a semi-rematch of last week’s National Bank Open doubles semifinal, where Routliffe, playing with Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski who passed on Cincinnati this week after a tough few weeks that included a bronze-medal run at the Olympics in Paris, beat Fernandez and her sister Bianca Jolie.

It is the second WTA 1000 final of Fernandez’s career. She reached the Miami Open final in 2023 with Taylor Townsend, losing to Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula.

Singles Comeback Comes Up Just Short

Three comebacks from a set and a break down in one tournament proved to be too many for Leylah Annie Fernandez at the Cincinnati Open. Despite pushing Jessica Pegula deep into the third set after the American had multiple big leads, the Canadian could not finish the job, falling in the quarter-finals 7-5, 6-7(1), 7-6(3).

In the first and second rounds, Fernandez had won despite being down a set and a break. The Canadian trailed the quarter-final clash by a set and a double break at 7-5, 4-0 and then 3-0 in the third set. Each time, she fought back, but at the business end of the decider it was Pegula who managed to hang on for the win.

There was little between the two women in the three-hour battle. Each had 15 break points, Pegula converted seven while Fernandez managed six. The Canadian had 34 winners to Pegula’s 25 but also committed 48 unforced errors, two more than her opponent. In the end, the American won just seven more points overall.

Four games passed in the opening set before the drama started. From 2-2, there were seven consecutive breaks of serve. Three times, Pegula broke the Canadian to take the lead, only for Fernandez to immediately respond to level the set.

Pegula broke for a fourth time for a 6-5 lead, her second chance to serve out the set, and this time she ended the run of breaks by holding to love to wrap up the opening set.

Unlike the back-and-forth that was the first set, the second was all about runs of momentum. Pegula kept up her great returning to start, breaking in Fernandez’s first two service games to take a 4-0 lead.

The Canadian managed to hold in the fifth game, ending a run of six consecutive breaks of her serve. She then turned the tables on Pegula, breaking twice during a five-game run to flip the set from 0-4 to 5-4.

Fernandez had set points on the American’s serve as Pegula served to stay in it at both 4-5 and 5-6 but could not convert. However, the Canadian dominated the tiebreak, dropping just a single point to force a deciding set.

Once again, Pegula put herself in a strong position when a Fernandez forehand error handed her an early break as the American took a 3-0 lead in the decider. But Fernandez was never going to go away quietly, responding with three straight games of her own to level at 3-3.

The two matched each other hold for hold as the third went along but Pegula had a chance to close out the match on Fernandez’s serve at 6-5, getting a look at three match points. The Canadian was still refusing to back down, saving two with big shots and Pegula missed one with a forehand error as the match went to a tiebreak.

Finally, Pegula was able to build a lead that Fernandez could not overcome. A minibreak courtesy of a backhand into the net by the Canadian gave the Toronto champion a lead she stretched to 4-1. Fernandez would never get back within a point as the American finished off the match on her fifth match point.

Written By

Pete Borkowski