Leylah Fernandez, the No. 6 seed, secured her first semifinal appearance of the season on Friday by defeating No. 1 seed Mirra Andreeva 6-2, 7-5 in the quarterfinals of the WTA Singapore Tennis Open. This victory continued Fernandez's strong performance in hard-court matches against Andreeva, having previously won two encounters in Hong Kong in 2023 and Toronto earlier this year; however, Andreeva had bested her on clay in their past meetings.
Read More
After overcoming two break points in the third game of the opening set, Fernandez broke Andreeva's serve and captured the set 6-2. Both players faced break points early in the second set, but the Canadian took advantage of Andreeva's errors to establish a 5-2 lead. Andreeva fought back, breaking Fernandez and bringing the set to 5-5. Nevertheless, Fernandez broke again in the 12th game to seal the match in 1 hour and 32 minutes.
"It's such a great win," Fernandez said post-match. "The way that I played, the way that I fought in the second set. It wasn't an easy match to begin with, physically and then of course mentally. I'm just happy that I was able to get through the finish line today."
Andreeva recorded 41 unforced errors during the match, compared to 30 from Fernandez, who also hit more winners, tallying 13 to Andreeva's 12. This win marked Fernandez's most significant achievement of the season and her ninth career victory against a Top 10 opponent.
Reflecting on their competitive history, Fernandez remarked, "It just feels like I've played her so many times over the years. We've practiced together a few times, so it's always a competitive battle. It just feels like I'm figuring her out and same as her, she's figuring me out. So it's kind of that push and pull. I'm not going to say that from then on I'm going to win against her all the time because that's not the case. We never know the result. We just know that it's going to be a battle."
In the semifinals on Saturday, Fernandez will face No. 5 seed Maja Chwalinska, who advanced after defeating No. 4 seed Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-2. This will be the first meeting between Fernandez and Chwalinska.
"Maja, she's such a tough opponent," said Fernandez. "She's having a great season too. She got to the finals of a Grand Slam. So it's not going to be an easy one. She's playing great. I'm going to kind of regroup tonight. After I eat, I just kind of talk with my coaches. I have a video call chat and see what the game plan is going to be like the next day."
Additionally, Tatiana Prozorova reached her first WTA Tour-level semifinal by coming back from a set down to defeat China's Xinyu Wang 3-6, 7-5, 6-4. Prozorova will face Australia's Talia Gibson, who upset No. 7 seed Maria Sakkari 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 in the last quarterfinal.