The Canadian survived a two hour battle with a tough opponent to advance to the semi-final.
Leylah Fernandez is into the semi-finals of the Abierto GNP Seguros after beating the Slovak Viktoria Kuzmova 7-5, 6-3 hitting 38 winners in the match while her opponent finished with a whopping 50 unforced errors.
“The beginning of the match I wasn’t playing my best tennis but I’m glad I got the win, in the beginning I was trying to stay positive as much as possible, keep moving my feet, trying to hit my targets as much as possible and wait until it all falls in and at one point it did and it felt pretty well”
The first two games of the match were a wild rollercoaster with the Canadian serving to start the match and she felt the pressure immediately from her Slovakian opponent who managed to earn four break points and convert to take an early 1-0 lead.
The very next game in a game that lasted 10 minutes long Fernandez battled and had three chances of her very own but couldn’t convert as Kuzmova was playing survival tennis and she would eventually hold.
At 3-2 the Slovak had a poor service game struggling to get her serve in and the Canadian pounced all over her earning three more break points and breaking to level the set at 3-3.
At 5-4 with Kuzmova serving to stay in the set she faced a set point from the Canadian but managed to save it and hold to make it 5-5. The very next game the Slovak picked up her game and earned another break point with a stunning backhand winner.
Fernandez would save it hitting some great forehands and saved three more to once again hold serve and put more pressure on her opponent to force a tiebreaker.
The Canadian had two set points in the very next game and at the second time of asking the Slovak cracked under pressure and double faulted to give Fernandez the set.
The Canadian took the momentum of winning the first set and ran away with it in the second set after holding the opening service game she would have two chances to get the first break of the set and break the Slovak serve at the second time of asking to take a 2-0 lead.
At 3-0 Fernandez earned more break points as it was clear she had started to take control of the match and was dominating her opponent. She would break with an amazing cross court winner to take a commanding 4-0 lead.
At 5-1 with the Canadian serving for the match she would face some pressure in the form of two break points which she would save before arriving at a match point which the Slovak would save before breaking to stay alive in the match.
At 5-2 Fernandez would have more match points but it was Kuzmova who would come up big saving them and holding to make it 5-3 before the Canadian would serve it out.
After the match in her post match press conference she told Ubitennis about how tough it was for her to pull off the victory today.
“It was tough, she went through qualies and she is in the quarterfinals and obviously she wants to win, she has a lot of experience in singles and in doubles but I was very happy that I got the win and I am through to the next round”
She was also asked if she had looked ahead to her next match and gave her thoughts on that.
“No not yet, but I know for sure it’s going to be a tough match, whoever I am going to play is going to bring their best tennis and I am hoping to get the win to go to the finals”.
She will either face Anna-Karolina Schmiedlova another Slovak or Sara Sorribes Tormo the Spaniard in the semi-finals for a spot in the final on Sunday.
