Australian Open: Fernandez tops Czech teen Bejlek, moves into second round
Leylah Fernandez defeated Sara Bejlek 7-6 (5), 6-2 on Sunday and will play the winner of the match between American Alycia Parks and Ukrainian qualifier Daria Snigur in the next round
Canadian Leylah Fernandez, the No 32 seed, advanced to the second round of the Australian Open by beating qualifier Sara Bejlek 7-6 (5), 6-2 at Melbourne Park on Sunday night.
The Canadian battled through a tense opening set before breaking things open in the second, moving into the second round for the second consecutive year with a win that lasted one hour and 33 minutes.
“t was a good match. It wasn’t a perfect match, but I’m just glad that I was able to fight through some of the tough moments that I encountered in the first set and just kept fighting,” Fernandez said. in her press conference after the win. “When I had my chance to close it out in the breaker, I was just happy that I was able to execute it. But I think it was a good first round, get a feel of the court, get a feel of the tournament, and I can just improve from there.”
Fernandez hit 27 winners against 17 for the 17-year-old, and claimed 14 of 19 points at net.
“It honestly makes me feel old” – Fernandez on facing the Czech teen
Bejlek was one of 11 teenagers in this year’s Australian Open women’s singles main draw – something that Fernandez does not recollect seeing in recent times.
“It honestly makes me feel old (laughing). But, when I play against someone younger, it does make me think a little bit more of when I first started. I think that also helps because I remember when I started, I was hungry. I wanted to kind of prove myself that I could be here. I just knew that today she’s going to have that same feeling, she’s going to do that. She was playing really well. So I think I was just happy that, like I said, on key moments I was able to stay calm and just execute my game,” the Canadian said.
Fernandez, ranked No 36, will play the winner of the match between American Alycia Parks and Ukrainian qualifier Daria Snigur next.
Melbourne (Grand Slam), other first-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 58.910.000, most recent results first):
- Rebecca Marino vs. Jessica Pegula
- Aleksandra Krunic vs. Clara Burel
- Renata Zarazua vs. Martina Trevisan
- Lin Zhu vs. Oceane Dodin
- Yafan Wang vs. Sorana Cirstea
- Emma Raducanu vs. Shelby Rogers
- Katie Boulter vs. Yue Yuan
- Qinwen Zheng vs. Ashlyn Krueger
- Peyton Stearns vs. Daria Kasatkina
- Sloane Stephens vs. Olivia Gadecki
- Cristina Bucsa vs. Anna Blinkova
- Elena Rybakina vs. Karolina Pliskova
- Elisabetta Cocciaretto vs. Lulu Sun
- Emma Navarro vs. Xiyu Wang
- Camila Giorgi vs. Victoria Azarenka
- Greet Minnen vs. Clara Tauson
- Petra Martic vs. Ajla Tomljanovic
- Jelena Ostapenko vs. Kimberly Birrell
- Danielle Collins vs. Angelique Kerber
- Iga Swiatek vs. Sofia Kenin
- Caroline Garcia vs. Naomi Osaka
- Ons Jabeur vs. Yulia Starodubtseva
- Taylor Townsend vs. Paula Badosa
- Mirra Andreeva vs. Bernarda Pera
- Linda Fruhvirtova vs. Beatriz Haddad Maia
- Anna Kalinskaya vs. Katie Volynets
- Anhelina Kalinina vs. Arantxa Rus
- Viktorija Golubic vs. Veronika Kudermetova
- Yulia Putintseva vs. Anastasia Zakharova
- Magdalena Frech vs. Daria Saville
- Mayar Sherif vs. Elise Mertens
- Jaqueline Cristian vs. Katerina Siniakova
- Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Donna Vekic
- Rebeka Masarova vs. Aliaksandra Sasnovich
- Marta Kostyuk vs. Claire Liu
- Diana Shnaider vs. Jasmine Paolini
- Tatjana Maria vs. Camila Osorio
- Fiona Ferro vs. Mccartney Kessler
- Ekaterina Alexandrova vs. Laura Siegemund
- Kaja Juvan vs. Anastasia Potapova
- Anna Karolina Schmiedlova vs. Coco Gauff
- Nadia Podoroska vs. Tamara Zidansek
- Storm Hunter vs. Sara Errani
- Dayana Yastremska vs. Marketa Vondrousova
- Yanina Wickmayer vs. Varvara Gracheva
- Kayla Day vs. Viktoriya Tomova
- Elina Svitolina vs. Taylah Preston
- Linda Noskova vs. Marie Bouzkova
- Ella Seidel vs. Aryna Sabalenka
- Magda Linette vs. Caroline Wozniacki
- Caroline Dolehide vs. Leolia Jeanjean
- Liudmila Samsonova vs. Amanda Anisimova
- Diane Parry vs. Xinyu Wang
- Sara Sorribes Tormo vs. Alina Korneeva
- Ana Bogdan vs. Brenda Fruhvirtova
- Maria Sakkari vs. Nao Hibino
- Tamara Korpatsch vs. Jodie Burrage
- Alycia Parks vs. Daria Snigur
- Alize Cornet vs. Maria Timofeeva
- Zhuoxuan Bai vs. Elina Avanesyan
- Mai Hontama vs. Barbora Krejcikova: sunday
- Lesia Tsurenko vs. Lucia Bronzetti: sunday
- Kamilla Rakhimova beat Emina Bektas: 6-4, 6-4