Leylah Fernandez, of Canada, returns to Caroline Garcia, of France, at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, Calif., Monday, March 13, 2023. Fernandez and American partner Taylor Townsend advanced to the Miami Open women's doubles semifinals Tuesday, with a 2-6, 6-6 (4), 10-8 win over Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Mark J. Terrill
MIAMI – Canada’s Leylah Fernandez and American partner Taylor Townsend advanced to the Miami Open women’s doubles semifinals Tuesday with a 2-6, 7-6 (4), 10-8 win over Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine.
Fernandez and Townsend were accurate on 88.9 per cent of first serves in the final set and won 66.7 per cent of total service points.
Ostapenko and Kichenok, seeded third in the women’s doubles draw, won the first set after converting two of their three breakpoint opportunities.
Fernandez, of Laval, Que., and Townsend then won a second-set tiebreak to force a decisive third set.
The North Americans will next face the winners of a quarterfinal between Poland’s Magda Linette and American Bernarda Pera and Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu and Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina.
Fernandez lost in the second round of the singles side of the tournament to No. 9 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 28, 2023.
