Leylah Fernandez loses to Danielle Collins in NBO third round |

MONTREAL — Leylah Fernandez feels like a learning experience.

late night play With temperatures dropping and little time to warm up as rain was delayed more than six hours on Thursday, the 20-year-old from Laval, Cuba, dropped from the National Bank Open after losing to qualifier Daniel Collins. The Americans 6-2, 6-3 in the third round.

Fernandez, who usually goes to bed early Realizing that she had to learn to handle those situations better after her opponent had grown up under the same conditions.

“Late night matches, I like it, but I have to change my sleeping schedule. So I just have to learn how to handle this,” she said of the match that kicked off at 10pm local time – three hours later than scheduled to begin.

“This was a good learning experience. A good way to see what I’m doing well and what we could do better. Either waking up later or taking more naps. But I think it was a good experience for me to learn as an athlete.”

Encouraged by a but boisterous half-court crowd at the IGA Stadium with an insistent “let’s go Leylah!” chant all night long — Fernandez lost momentum early in the game. And missed twice to lose important breakpoints towards the end of the second set. As Collins cruises to victory

Although Fernandez left first But the local favorites had a great time in this tournament. She convincingly won her opening for her first major draw victory in Montreal. And disappoint 11th-seeded Beatrice Haddad Maia in a three-set thriller on Wednesday.

“Goosebumps”, she said, was what she would remember the most.

“I get goosebumps every time I go to court and when the fans shout my name and cheer me,” she said. “That was my favorite part of the week.”

Fernandez, who entered the tournament in 81st place, is the last remaining Canadian at the WTA 1000, which runs through Sunday.

Collins is now a five straight winner in Montreal. Almost untouchable while serving, earning 78.7 percent of her serve points without conceding a single breakpoint in a match that lasted 80 minutes.

The 29-year-old has done a great job. by defeating Elina Svitolina, a Wimbledon semi-finalist in the first round and No. 8 Maria Zachari in the second set. Both sets consecutively After qualifying

“I just want more matches and more time on the pitch. And of course I got that in the qualifiers playing two hard, three-set matches,” said 48th-ranked Collins. “It’s hard to get the momentum of that match. And that is really the key, it just gets more competitive.”

Collins advanced to the quarterfinals. She will face World No. 1 Iga Swiatek from Poland on Friday afternoon.

The race took a long time to start, but Collins wasted no time at the start.

after serving twice to start the match Collins finally broke through her fifth breakpoint to go 3-1 up.

Fernandez trailed 5-2 with two hits in a row, five of which she did that night. On the way, another serve was lost when Collins opened.

Additionally, Collins had two mistakes of her own. That led to thunderous cheers from fans as the Americans also had to beat the crowd on Thursday night.

However, that didn’t affect her play that much. as Collins kept rolling through the second set.

“It’s never easy when you play against your home team. I think it certainly helps when they come from here and have a lot of fans,” she said. “(But) I grew up in that environment.”

Although Fernandez stood firm on her serve through three serve games, But she hardly challenged Collins on the other side.

Collins passed Fernandez to lead 4-3 for the last time on serve for the match. which she doesn’t miss and finished with two winners.

“Daniel played great. Didn’t do much wrong,” said Fernandez. “I think she is very disgusting. and when I try to play offensively in my opinion Am I playing too much or not? Enough with the ball.

On Thursday, Swiatek beat 14th-seeded Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 in a match that was all rained six hours and 10 minutes late.

“I mostly read books. And there’s a quiet room here, so I’m there,” Sviatek says of how she kills time. “But of course it’s not easy to increase energy levels… I’m just trying to save energy and yes it works.”

It was the first meeting between the two opponents since this year’s French Open final, where Swiatek, the No. 1 for 71 weeks in a row, won in three sets.

No. 10 Daria Kasatkina beat Marie Bouzkova 6-3, 6-4 to advance. She’ll face No. 3 Elena Rybakyna, who beat American Sloane Stephens in Friday’s quarter.

Before the weather deteriorated, fourth seed Jessica Pegula of the United States advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Jasmine Paolini of Italy.

Pegula will face United States sixth seed and mixed doubles Coco Goff. who beat Czech Wimbledon champion Marketta Vondrusova in just 62 minutes.

The third round match between No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 15 Liudmila Samsonova and No. 7 Petra Kvitova and No. 12 Belinda Bencic is set to take place on Friday due to delays.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on August 10, 2023.