NEW YORK: Raising her right fist to celebrate winner after winner, 18-year-old Leylah Fernandez showed that her discomfort at defending champion Naomi Osaka at the U.S. Open was no coincidence in beating another winner of the title passed at Flushing Meadows.
With noise and deception, and with a veteran balance in the face of a large deficit against a much more accomplished rival, the unclassified Fernández took the last five games to defeat the 2016 champion, Angelique Kerber, 4-6, 7- 6 (5), 6- 2 in the fourth round Sunday at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
As against Osaka at Arthur Ashe Stadium two nights earlier, Fernandez left the starting set. As against Osaka, Fernandez also placed in the second set, this time, Kerber led a 4-2 break. But for the second game in a row on a big track, the 73rd-ranked Canadian managed to get people to be by her side, exulting every time she gave one of her impossible ground races from an impossible angle.
He would make a fist. I would grind my arms. And he did so repeatedly, finishing with a 45-28 lead in winners.
Fernandez is a left-hander who redirects the opponent’s shots quickly and seemingly easily, sometimes falling to his knees near the baseline to get the proper leverage. This is a style very similar to the one used by Kerber to reach No. 1 in the rankings and get three Grand Slam titles.
Kerber has won more matches in the American Open (and in all Grand Slam tournaments) than any other woman in the draw. He is 33 years old and plays well enough to reach the Wimbledon semifinals in July. But she couldn’t stay with Fernandez and seemed upset about it, looking at her guest box with her arms outstretched as she muttered something in the final match.
It wasn’t long before the game that he seemed to be consistent and ready to push Fernandez into the third set. In fact, Kerber kept a break point with a chance to go up 3-1, but Fernandez erased that opportunity with a cross-first-line winner.
Kerber would not claim any other game.
He tried to position himself definitively when Fernandez served for the victory. Kerber regained the breaking point, but Fernandez delivered a first-hand winner in the race that got deuce. A corner-to-corner setback that somehow extended a point before Kerber failed created a match point. And Kerber’s setback on the net ended it.
Fernandez raised both arms, then leaned forward with his hands on his knees and smiled. He stood up and patted his chest on the chest as Kerber strolled through the net to offer him a hand brooch and an arm around Fernandez’s shoulders.
Now, Fernandez, who had only been up to the third round in a major tournament so far, will face No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals.
Svitolina defeated double Grand Slam champion Simona Halep in sets in a row the previous Sunday and did not drop a set in the tournament.
Fernandez is among several cool faces making moves in this most tumultuous open in the United States, where the question at the beginning of each day has become “Who will take a surprise?” – and there tend to be multiple answers every night.
The other women’s fourth-round clashes on Sunday were Wimbledon runner-up Aryna Sabalenka against No. 15 Elise Mertens and two-time Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza and 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.