Quebecer Leylah Fernandez worked hard and overthrew Swiss Viktorija Golubic in the second round of the grass court tournament in Birmingham on Wednesday, while Canadian Milos Raonic suffered elimination at the expense of American Taylor Fritz on the side of the Queen’s Club.
Sixth seed and 33rd in the world rankings, Fernandez won 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in 2 hours 21 minutes.
She lost the first game of the match while serving. Golubic, 78th in the world, took advantage of this advantage until the end of the first set.
Both players experienced more service problems in the second set, when there were a total of seven service breaks.
Serving for the match at 5-4, Golubic suffered a break of service at zero. Two games later, Fernandez broke her rival’s serve again to win the second set.
In the final set, Fernandez broke Golubic’s serve at zero in the sixth game. She then closed the books on her third opportunity.
In the next round, Fernandez will face Australian Ajla Tomljanovic.
In doubles, Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her New Zealand playing partner Erin Routliffe lost 6-3, 6-2 against Belgian Greet Minnen and Briton Heather Watson.
Dabrowksi and Routliffe were the second seeds in the women’s doubles draw in Birmingham. They won the Nottingham tournament last week.
Fourth-seeded Fritz defeated Raonic 7-6 (5), 6-4 in a second-round match at Queen’s Club.
Raonic, 33, had set an ATP record for a three-set match in the previous round, hammering 47 aces against Cameron Norrie.
This time, the Ontarian was limited to nine aces, two fewer than Fritz.
Raonic seemed on track to win the first set, leading 5-3 in the tiebreaker. However, Fritz won the next four points.
Fritz then managed to break Raonic’s serve in the ninth game of the second set. So he found himself serving for the match and managed to close the books.
Raonic, a Wimbledon finalist in 2016, has played just 10 matches (6-4) in 2024 as he continues to return to form after healing from injuries. He seems at ease on the grass, having reached the quarter-finals in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, in the Netherlands, last week.
