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|Photo: Mauricio Paiz

Leylah Annie Fernandez continued to live up to her billing as the favorite in Paris. In dominant fashion, the 16 year old from Laval secured her spot in the third round of the Roland-Garros Junior Championships by defeating Spain’s Marta Custic 6-0, 6-3.

Fernandez, the No.1 seed in the girls’ singles draw, needed only 67 minutes to win in straight sets. The Canadian benefited early on from the Spaniard’s struggles. In the opening set, Custic placed just 35% of her first service balls in play and won only two points on serve. To the Canadian’s credit, Fernandez took advantage and won 16-straight points to close out the first set.

In the second frame, Custic tried to fight back but Fernandez was resilient. The teenager won all of her service games, saving six break points including three in row in the final game. At the same time, Fernandez also made the most of her opportunities, converting on 4 of 6 break points during the match.

With the victory, Fernandez has now won seven matches in a row. Her streak began on the clay-courts of Charleroi, where she won a Junior G1 ITF Tournament last Saturday.

She will next face No.15 seed Sohyun Park of South Korea in the third round.

Dabrowski falls in women’s doubles QF

Photo: Mauricio Paiz

Gabriela Dabrowski and partner Yifan Xu were ousted in the French Open quarter-finals at the hands of the Chinese team of Zheng Saisai and Duan Yingying, losing a narrow three-setter 2-6, 7-5, 5-7.

Despite dropping the first set, Dabrowski and Xu rallied from behind and appeared poised to reach their first-ever semi-final at Roland-Garros. Leading 5-3 in the final set and serving to win the match, the Canadian-Chinese duo couldn’t make the most of their opportunity. Zheng and Duan managed to save match point and won three consecutive points to earn a break back.

From that point on, Zheng and Duan won 12 of the next 14 points to close out the match.

Despite the disappointing finish for the Ottawa native, there are plenty of positives to draw from this clay-court season. Dabrowski and Xu played in their first-ever French Open quarter-final in women’s doubles. Previously, the pair had failed to get past the third round in each of the last two seasons. In the lead-up to Roland-Garros, Dabrowski and Xu also secured their first title of the year by winning the 2019 Nuremberg Open.

However, Dabrowski is not quite done in Paris. The 27-year-old Canadian, along with her mixed doubles partner Mate Pavic, advanced to the French Open semi-finals on Tuesday afternoon, by defeating Shuai Zhang and John Peers 1-6, 7-5 [10-8]. It marks the third year in a row that Dabrowski reaches the semi-finals at Roland-Garros in mixed doubles.

(Photo: Mauricio Paiz)

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