Canada’s Leylah Annie Fernandez battled to a win over Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine on Saturday to advance to the second round of the Tokyo Olympics tennis tournament.
Fernandez, ranked No. 72 on the WTA Tour, won 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 against world No. 46 at the Ariake Tennis Park in Tokyo.
It’s a first Olympic appearance for the 18-year-old from Laval, Que. She’ll next play the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova — the 2021 French Open champion — after her opponent, Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan, retired with injury.
While Yastremeska came back to find her rhythm in the second set, Fernandez kept her intensity throughout the third. The Canadian converted on three of four break points.
“I’m very happy with myself. I fought for every point…she’s a great player,” Fernandez said.
The heat in Tokyo was battle in itself.
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“I tried to tell myself I’m good — I just got to fight through it, get over that hurdle,” she said.
Fernandez played her match around 12 hours after walking in the opening ceremony as part of Team Canada on Friday.
“It’s my first Olympics. I really wanted to do that walk even though I was going to play the next day. I just had to be mentally prepared for the difficulties of the next day, and I think I managed it well,” she said.
Seeing other competitors parade with pride and confidence, she said, inspired her.
“That gave me more enthusiasm to get on the court and to give it my all.”
Meanwhile, Gabriela Dabrowski and Sharon Fichman lost their opener 7-6(3), 6-4 against Brazil’s Luisa Stefani and Laura Pigossi in the first round of doubles.
On the men’s side, Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal will play Andy Murray, who won gold at both the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Olympics, in his first-round match on Sunday.
Also advancing Saturday were world No. 8 Iga Swiatek of Poland, Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, Greece’s Maria Sakkari, and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of the Russian Olympic Committee.