Leylah Fernandez was knocked off 6-3, 7-6 (3) by Liudmila Samsonova in the second round of the US Open, a year after the Canadian lost to Emma Raducanu in the final.
Fernandez only recently returned to action after missing much of the summer with a stress fracture in her right foot. She would have played Williams if both reached the fourth round but knew that would be difficult, estimating her game was only about 30%.
“It’s hard to get to the highest level, but it’s so easy to get back down and that’s what happening right now,” Fernandez said.
It’s not just happening to her.
Raducanu and two-time winner Naomi Osaka were eliminated on Tuesday night in the first round. That left Bianca Andreescu, who beat Williams in the 2019 final, as the most recent U.S. Open women’s champion still in the field.
Andreescu was set to face No. 15 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia on Wednesday night.
Ons Jabeur, Coco Gauff and Madison Keys through to next round
No. 12 Coco Gauff and 20th-seeded Madison Keys avoided the trouble, setting up a third-round matchup between the Americans. Gauff beat Elena Gabriela Ruse 6-2, 7-6 (4), while 2017 U.S. Open runner-up Keys outlasted Camili Giorgi 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (6).
Gauff was two points from dropping the second set at 5-3 before the 18-year old rallied, something she said demonstrates an aspect of her game that wasn’t there early in the season but could make the French Open finalist a threat now.
“Today, down love-30, 5-3, definitely could have threw it in the can and got ready for the third set. Same at 15-40. But I didn’t,” Gauff said. “I feel like that shows growth. I feel like in the past, those are games I would have lost. Yeah, it’s about learning, and I think I’m learning.”
Coming off her own run to the Wimbledon finals, No. 5 Ons Jabeur matched her best U.S. Open result with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Elizabeth Mandlik, the daughter of 1985 champion Hana Mandlikova. Jabeur lost in the third round in each of her last three trips to New York.
“I have a mission,” Jabeur said. “I’m No. 5 in the world, so for me I’m trying to represent that number as much as I can so I can really improve my game and I can really continue and improve my ranking, hopefully.”
She will play American Shelby Rogers, the No. 31 seed who beat Viktoria Kuzmova 7-5, 6-1.
Defending men’s champion Daniil Medvedev followed Williams on Arthur Ashe Stadium. A win over Arthur Rinderknech of France would sent him into a third-round matchup against Wu Yibing, the first Chinese man to win a U.S. Open match in the professional era, which began in 1968.
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