Leylah Fernandez, the 2021 US Open runner-up, reached her 8th career final when she pulled off a 3rd-set come-back to beat World No 51 Sorana Cirstea, 6-1 2-6 6-4, where the 23-year old Canadian will face Tereza Valentova, an 18-year-old qualifier from Czechia, who came from a set down to defeat Jaqueline Cristian from Romania, 6-7(3) 6-4 6-3.
Fernandez had a slow start to the Asian swing, but she has made up for that with a deep run in Osaka, defeating American Hailey Baptiste, Hungarian qualifier Dalma Galfi, and Rebecca Sramkova from Slovakia without dropping a set.
The No 4 seed, the last remaining seeded player in Osaka, got broken in the very first game of the match against Cirstea, but swiftly responded to win the first set after collecting the next 6 games.
Cirstea, notably had defeated Japanese wild-card Moyuka Uchijima, Britain’s Katie Boulter and Viktorija Golubic from Switzerland on her way to the Last 4, and it was the Romanian who had started on the front foot, clinching that early break of serve.
It was the only game Cirstea won in the opener, with a rampant Fernandez sweeping up all the others in a dominant display, losing just 8 points in 5 games.
Taking the set, though, proved to be much trickier, but the Canadian eventually got the job done on her 5th set point.
Fernandez was looking for a swift entry into the final, and had 2 break points to immediately take command of the second, but she failed to convert either of them, offering up some welcome momentum to 35-year old Cirstea, who claimed back-to-back breaks to level the match at a set apiece.
After losing the set, the World No 27 found herself in more trouble, as Cirstea kept her positive momentum going to steal a march on her opponent, going up 3-1 in the decider, but Fernandez managed to get the break back, and then, at 4-4, she broke the Romanian’s serve again for a 5-4 lead, before serving out for the match in the following game.
For the title at the Osaka WTA 500, Fernandez will take on Valentova in what will be the Canadian’s 2nd final of the year, having also made it all the way at the WTA 500 in Washington in late July where she defeated Russian Anna Kalinskaya in the final for her 4th WTA singles title.
If Fernandez wins the final on Sunday, she will not only win her 2nd title of the year, but she will also overtake 24th-ranked Victoria Mboko as the top-ranked Canadian female tennis player.
Tereza Valentova, an 18-year-old qualifier, came from a set down to defeat Jaqueline Cristian from Romania to meet Leyhland Fernandez in the Japan Open final on Sunday
WTAtennis.com
Her opponent in the final, Tereza Valentova, had to advance through qualifying to reach the main draw, and then took out Alexandra Eala from the Philippines, 3rd-seeded Belgian Elise Mertens and Olga Danilovic, the 8th seed from Serbia to reach the semi-finals, dropping just one set along the way.
It was a high calibre roster of players who failed to get the better of the Czech, with the next in line being the World No 47 Cristian, who received a walk-over into the semi-finals after top-seeded Naomi Osaka had to pull out with a left leg injury on Friday.
In the Last 4 on Saturday, against Cristian, the 18-year Czech was broken in the opening game of the match and lost the first set in a breaker, but she came back to win in 2 hours and 43 minutes to reach her first WTA final.
The first set alone took well over an hour, with both trying to snatch the advantage off each other.
It began with 3 breaks of serve going the way of Cristian, and when Valentova levelled up affairs, the Romanian broke once more to put herself in a favourable position to close out the set, but she was unable to serve it out.
Valentova extended the first set, which culminated in a tiebreak when Cristian finally got the job done as she moved within a sole set of her 3rd senior WTA final.
With the second set sticking on hold early on, Valentova won 3 games on the trot to race into a 4-2 lead and remained ahead, despite the 27-year-old Romanian’s best efforts to snuff out the advantage.
A decider was on the cards, and it was Valentova, who made the most of her chances in a somewhat routine set, as she sandwiched a break at both the start and at the end, claiming her 2nd match point to continue her phenomenal run in Osaka in a first-time meeting with Fernandez on Sunday.
AloJapan.com