WHAT HAPPENED: Leylah Fernandez’s storybook run at the 2021 US Open continued on Thursday night in Arthur Ashe Stadium, where the 19-year-old Canadian scored yet another high-profile upset, advancing to the first Grand Slam final of her young career with a 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 win over No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.
The unseeded Fernandez, ranked No. 73, has now taken down three Top 5 players en route to the title tilt, having also dispatched defending champion Naomi Osaka and fifth-ranked Elina Svitolina.
Sabalenka, 23, was appearing in her second consecutive Grand Slam semifinal, having also reached the final four this summer at Wimbledon.
“That’s years and years and years of hard work, and tears and blood, everything, on-court, off-court sacrifices,” Fernandez said on court after her victory. “I just wanted to be in the final. I really wanted it. I fought for every point. Aryna fought for the same thing. I don’t know how I got that last point, but I’m glad I did.”
Sabalenka had broken serve 22 times through five matches coming into Day 11. She added to that tally in her first opportunity against the left-handed Fernandez, out to an early 3-0 advantage. But as she’s done all tournament long, Fernandez battled back to level the opener at 4-all and eventually take the set in a tiebreak, 7-3, saving a set point in the process.
Fernandez got off to a slow start in the second, broken at love to open the set. Yet, once again, the Montreal native brought the set back on serve. Sabalenka would subsequently receive a warning from the chair umpire after taking her frustrations out on her racquet down 2-3. The outburst seemed to energize the world No. 2, who, with her opponent serving at 4-all, 30-40, would notch her third break of the match, before forcing a decider.
Since surrendering her serve three times in her first-round match against Nina Stojanovic, Sabalenka had been broken just twice in 40 service games prior to facing Fernandez. But with Sabalenka serving to stay in the match at 4-5 in the final set, Fernandez would grab her third break of the night, bringing the crowd, several of whom were wrapped in Canadian flags, to their feet.
WHAT IT MEANS: Fernandez will now sit back and wait to see who she’ll face in the final. No. 17 seed Maria Sakkari and 18-year-old Emma Raducanu will go head-to-head in Thursday night’s second semifinal. Should Raducanu win, it would set up only the eighth Grand Slam final in the Open Era between teenagers and the first since the 1999 US Open (Serena Williams def. Martina Hingis, 6-3, 7-6).
MATCH POINT: Fernandez is only the fourth Canadian woman in the Open Era to advance to the last four at a major, following in the footsteps of Carling Bassett-Seguso, Eugenie Bouchard, and Bianca Andreescu.
