Leylah Fernandez is into her first-ever grand slam final at the US Open after beating world number two Aryna Sabalenka 7-6, 4-6, 6-4, to record her fourth straight win against a top 20 opponent.
The Montreal native hit 34 winners and served nine aces in a match that lasted two hours and 21 minutes in front of a packed crowd on Arthur Ashe Stadium with most of the fans cheering for the Canadian.
” I would say it thanks to the New York crowd and they helped me today and they cheered for me and they never gave up and fought for me and thanks to you I was able to win”. She said.
It was Sabalenka who got off to the better start after breaking in the first game of the match and it stayed on serve until 4-2 when the Canadian earned three chances to break and broke back to love to go back on serve.
Fernandez saved a set point at 5-6 and the first set was decided by a tiebreaker which was a tight affair and the world number 73 managed to get the crucial break at 4-3 before serving out the first set.
The beginning of the second set was exactly like the first with the world number two breaking serve again in the first game of the set but again at 2-1 the 19-year old broke right back.
At 4-4, it was Sabalenka who managed to get the crucial break of serve and served out the second set to send it to a decider and a final third set for a place in the US Open final.
The third set stayed on serve until 3-2 when on her second break point of the game Fernandez managed to break serve but the following game on her fourth breakpoint the number two seed broke right back.
At 5-4 with the Minsk, Belarus native serving to stay in the match the Canadian managed to break her at love to win the match and set up a final match on Saturday.
After the match in her on-court interview, Fernandez was asked about her mental toughness to get through these matches against big opponents.
” Years of hard work and tears and blood and everything on court, off-court, and sacrifices, and I wanted to be in the final and I really wanted it and I fought for every point and Aryna (Sabalenka) fought for the same thing and I am glad that I am in the final”. She said.
Fernandez will face another teenager in Saturday’s final who is also on a cinderella run in Emma Raducanu who managed to also shock some top players, including Maria Sakkari in the semi-finals.
Raducanu was actually born in Toronto before moving to the UK.
