Leylah Annie Fernandez of Montreal, Quebec delivered one of her most significant wins as a professional tennis player on the clay surface on Monday. In the first round of the 2022 Italian Open, Fernandez defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2.
After a sloppy first set, Fernandez dominated the last two sets to take the match. One major reason why Fernandez had so much success was her second serve. She won 62.5% of her points on her second serve, compared to Pavlyuchenkova, who won only 18.2%.
Fernandez was returning extremely well. She broke Pavlyuchenkova five times. Heading into the tournament, Pavlyuchenkova was seeded 14th, while Fernandez was unseeded. Pavlyuchenkova also reached the 2021 French Open final, where she lost to Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, 6-1, 2-6, 6-4.
There was another Canadian to win in Rome on Monday. Denis Shapovalov of Toronto, Ontario beat Italian Lorenzo Sonego 7-6, 3-6, 6-3 in the first round.
Last week in Madrid, Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, Quebec was the Canadian who went the furthest in singles as he reached the quarterfinals. In the process, he had two dominating wins. In the second round, Auger-Aliassime beat Cristian Garin of Chile 6-3, 6-0, and then Jannik Sinner of Italy, 6-1, 6-2 in the third round. In Rome this week, Auger-Aliassime is seeded eighth.
Also in Madrid this past week, Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa, Ontario won her 11th WTA women’s doubles title. She teamed up with Giuliana Olmos of Mexico to beat Desirae Krawczyk of the United States and Demi Schurrs of the Netherlands, 7-6, 5-7, [10-7].
