Leylah Fernandez Advances At Qatar Open After Poor Start To 2nd-Round Match | CBC Sports

Tennis

Canada’s Leylah Fernandez is off to the round of 16 at the Qatar Open after a 0-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over Spain’s Paula Badosa on Tuesday.

Canadian faces 5th seed Qinwen Zheng in Round of 16, withdraws from doubles playThe Canadian Press

· Posted: Feb 13, 2024 11:10 AM EST | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., rebounded from a 6-0 loss in the opening set Tuesday to defeat Spain’s Paul Badosa 6-2, 6-3 in second-round play at the Qatar Open in Doha. (Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)Canada’s Leylah Fernandez is off to the Round of 16 at the Qatar Open after a 0-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over Spain’s Paula Badosa on Tuesday in Doha.

The Laval, Que., native had an opening set to forget, having all six of her break point chances saved and having three converted against her, in addition to three aces from Badosa.

However, Fernandez turned it around saving five of Badosa’s six break point opportunities along with the Spaniard committing eight of her 10 double faults in the final two sets of play.

Fernandez won 63.5 per cent of her first-serve points, while breaking on four out of 15 chances.

She is set to face fifth-seeded Qinwen Zheng of China on Wednesday.

Fernandez withdrew from the doubles tournament in Doha following the victory over Badosa.

She was scheduled to team with Georgia’s Oksana Kalashnikova in a Round of 16 match against the top-seeded duo of Belgium’s Elise Mertens and Taiwan’s Su-Wei Hsieh.

WATCH | Fernandez needs 3 sets to down Badosa in 2nd round:

Leylah Fernandez rallies into the Round of 16 in DohaLeylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., rallied to beat Spain’s Paula Badosa for the first time in four meetings, 0-6, 6-2, 6-3, in the second round of the Qatar Open in Doha.