The biggest story at the 2021 United States Open tennis championship has been the play of the 19-year-old Canadian Leylah Annie Fernandez. In her last three wins, she has beaten defending champion Naomi Osaka of Japan, three-time grand slam champion Angelique Kerber of Germany, and world number five Elina Svitolina of Ukraine. As Fernandez is set to play her semifinal match against Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, here are five fascinating facts.
5) Fernandez is one of three unseeded players left. Fernandez, who is 73rd in the world, has company. The other unseeded players who still have a chance of winning the U.S. Open are Lloyd Harris of South Africa and Emma Raducanu of Great Britain. Harris has Alexander Zverev of Germany in the men’s quarterfinals on Wednesday, while Raducanu has Olympic champ Belinda Bencic of Switzerland in the women’s quarterfinals.
4) O Canada! For only the second time ever there are two Canadians in the semifinals of the same major. Fernandez is joined by Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal in the men’s semifinals. The first time was Wimbledon in 2014 when Eugenie Bouchard and Milos Raonic were each in the final four.
3) Low-ranked players have made the final four before. You may think number 73 is low to reach the final four, but remember Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia won Wimbledon in 2001 ranked 125th in the world, and Mark Edmondson of Australia won the Australian Open in 1976 ranked 212th in the world.
2) Dominant net play. In all five of Fernandez’s matches, she has had a higher percentage than her opponent at the net. Fernandez has won 51 of 66 points for an impressive percentage of 77.2%. It should be noted that Fernandez has got significantly more comfortable at the net as the tournament has gone along.
1) Impressive run came out of nowhere. When Bianca Andreescu reached the women’s semifinals in 2019, it was not that much of a surprise because she won the Rogers Cup and Indian Wells in 2019 too. However, there were zero signs that Fernandez had this type of run in her play at Flushing Meadows in 2021. Fernandez was steamrolled by Alison Riske of Pittsburgh in the first round of Cincinnati, 6-2, 6-2, beaten by Harriet Dart of Great Britain, 7-5, 7-6 in the first round of the Rogers Cup, clobbered by Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-1, 6-2 in the first round of Wimbledon, and beaten by French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-4 in the second round of the Olympic Games.
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