Fernandez saves two match points to upset Rybakina in Cincinnati

Former US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez halted No.4 seed Elena Rybakina's return to action in the second round of the Cincinnati Open, triumphing 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 from double match point down in the second set.

Cincinnati: Scores | Draws | Order of Play

Rybakina was playing her first match since falling in the Wimbledon semifinals to eventual champion Barbora Krejcikova. Acute bronchitis had forced the Kazakhstani to withdraw from both the Paris Olympic Games and last week's WTA 1000 event in Toronto, and her rust showed throughout in the form of 17 double faults. Two of those came on both of her match points as she served at 6-5 in the second set.

"I think it was an ugly match from the both of us, it clearly wasn't the best tennis," Fernandez said. "Clearly our service games weren't going well, too many unforced errors. I was just lucky that today I got the good end of the stick.

"I'm proud of the way I fought. It wasn't the prettiest match, but I accepted it and I just tried to enjoy that moment even though a lot of mistakes were coming."

Photos: All of 2024's winners from match point down

Fernandez has been enjoying a resurgent season, and returned to the Top 30 in June after an absence of nearly two years. The Canadian took advantage to seal her fifth career Top 5 win, and first since she knocked out three Top 5 opponents to reach the 2021 US Open final.

How did Fernandez pull off the upset?

The 21-year-old was coming off a disappointing second-round loss to Ashlyn Krueger in her home event of Toronto last week, and had needed to come from a set and a break down to escape Yuan Yue in her Cincinnati opener. But she demonstrated in the first game that she was eager to take on the challenge of Rybakina, smacking two winners to break immediately.

Like Rybakina, Fernandez also struggled for consistency throughout. She fired 26 winners, but also committed 27 unforced errors -- including 13 double faults of her own. In the second set, they seemed to have been her undoing when she threw in two in a row to drop serve at 5-3.

Ultimately, Fernandez pulled through due to her superior match management. After Rybakina had squandered her two match points, Fernandez pounced with two clean winners to break back, then dominated the ensuing tiebreak. In the decider, Rybakina managed to serve her way out of her first troublesome service game, escaping triple break point serving at 2-3. But Fernandez -- who did not face a break point herself in the third set -- was undaunted, breaking to love at her next opportunity for 4-3.

"I just tried to make it a dogfight, just try to play a little bit of street tennis, put an ugly ball back in. We have to keep it simple. I'm happy that I found a way to get to that point. Slowly but surely, my confidence and my game was growing so that helped a lot."

What were the positives for Rybakina to take?

The former Wimbledon champion never found her groove in the match; her 17 double faults were part of a total of 50 unforced errors, frequently wild misses off routine rally balls. She won just 35% of the points behind her second serve.

However, in her first match in over a month, Rybakina still managed to fire 41 winners, including 20 aces. And despite fading at the end of both the second and third sets, one stand-out statistic was her break point conversion rate: she took six out of her seven chances.

What's next for Fernandez?

A first encounter with the in-form Diana Shnaider. The 20-year-old has barely stopped over the past three weeks: after winning the Olympic silver medal in doubles, she immediately made the Toronto semifinals the following week. Shnaider's surge continued in Cincinnati with a 7-5, 6-0 win over Krueger.

World No.20 Shnaider had lost to Krueger in both of their previous meetings -- once at pro level, in the quarterfinals of the 2023 Charlottesville ITF W60 event, and once in juniors, in the 2021 Wimbledon girls' competition. However after trailing by an early break, Shnaider recovered to win the last nine games in a row. She has now won 19 of her last 22 singles matches.

Results in brief

On a stacked day in Cincinnati, Fernandez and Shnaider were joined in the last 16 by the following players:

• No.3 seed Aryna Sabalenka fired 24 winners, including five aces, to overpower Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-3, 6-4. Sabalenka saved all three break points she faced to notch her 35th match win of 2024.
• Sabalenka will next face Elina Svitolina, who advanced 6-4, 6-1 over lucky loser Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. Sabalenka leads their head-to-head 3-1, but had to save three match points to win their most recent encounter 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(7) in the third round of Rome in May.
• Elina Avanesyan, playing under the Armenian flag for the first time, notched a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 upset of No.8 seed Jelena Ostapenko, reversing the result of their 2023 US Open encounter. Avanesyan has now won six of the nine matches she has contested against Top 20 opposition.
• No.10 seed Liudmila Samsonova saved three set points in the first set, winning it on an overtime tiebreak, then rolled through the second against Magda Linette to win 7-6(10), 6-1 in 1 hour and 50 minutes. The first set was the joint-third longest regular tiebreak of the 2024 season.