Defending ladies’s singles champion Naomi Osaka misplaced 5-7, 7-6(2), 6-4 to Leyla Anne Fernandez, an unseeded 18-year-old girl, within the third spherical of the US Open on Friday evening. Canada.
The quick and dynamic left-hander, ranked 73rd, had by no means confronted Osaka, however she didn’t seem intimidated, clenching her fists after profitable essential factors and sometimes instructed to play together with her topspin forehand.
It was a memorable night for the youngsters at Arthur Ashe Stadium. In the earlier match, a dynamic Spanish 18-year-old Carlos Alcaraz eradicated No. 3 males’s seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in a momentum-shifting thriller, coming all the way down to a fifth-set tiebreaker. It was the ultimate match of the day’s session and when the bottom cleared and the evening session crowd took their seats, Fernández led Alcaraz, rallying to defeat third seed Osaka.
The upset got here on the identical courtroom the place Osaka grew to become a world star by stunning Serena Williams to win the 2018 US Open. Osaka has since received three extra Grand Slam singles titles, together with final 12 months’s Open.
Germany’s Angelique Kerber reacts after defeating Sloane Stephens of the United States in a ladies’s singles third spherical match on the US Open in New York on September 3, 2021. (Michelle V. Eggins/The New York Times)
Osaka broke Fernandez’s serve 5-5 within the second set with a backhand winner after which served for the match. She did not even face a break level on the time, however was unable to shut the win. Fernandez scored the primary 5 factors of the following tiebreaker, permitting Osaka to throw his racket into the courtroom. Fernandez then leveled the match on one set every.
“I think I wanted to stay on the court a little longer, and I wanted to do a show for everyone here,” Fernandez stated in her post-match interview. “Just an hour on the court was not enough for me.”
Fernandez once more broke Osaka’s serve within the opening recreation to take the lead within the third set and though Osaka started to seek out her vary in her serve recreation, she couldn’t remedy Fernandez’s gradual left-handed serve. Osaka didn’t cover his disappointment. After Fernandez hit the net-cord winner within the second recreation of the ultimate set to high the winner 40-15, Osaka caught the ball and raised it excessive into the stands, receiving a code-breach for ball abuse. Gave.
Fernandez would get no break level on his serve within the last set and fell in love when it got here time to serve for an important win of his profession. At 30-0, he hit a horrible backhand drop shot winner and on his first match level, Osaka misjudged a forehand and hit it huge.
Hands up and smiling, Fernandez headed in direction of the online to shake fingers. “From the beginning, right before the match, I knew I was capable of winning,” she stated.
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With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
