OSAKA, Japan – Leylah Fernandez, the last seeded player at the WTA Japan Open, advanced to Sunday’s final after defeating 35-year-old Sorana Cîrstea with a score of 6-1, 2-6, and 6-4.
In Saturday’s decisive set, with a score of 4-4, Fernandez managed to break Cîrstea’s serve, and then held his own serve in the next game to secure his advance.
The Canadian tennis player, seeded fourth, will face Tereza Valentova, an 18-year-old player from the qualifying round, in the final. Valentova managed to defeat Jaqueline Cristian with scores of 6-7 (3), 6-4 and 6-3 in the other semifinal.
Cristian had reached the semi-finals after Naomi Osaka, the top seed, withdrew due to a left leg injury on Friday, giving the Romanian player a direct pass to the next round in the quarter-finals.
Fernandez, finalist of the US Open in 2021, reaches her eighth final in her career. Her only previous participation in a semifinal this season was at the WTA 500 D.C. Open, where she won her fourth WTA singles title by defeating Anna Kalinskaya.
Fernandez suffered a three-set defeat to Coco Gauff in the second round of the China Open in late September.
