(Paris) Two Canadians who failed to make long runs in singles at the French Open tennis tournament are making an impressive splash in doubles.
Leylah Fernandez of Quebec and Taylor Townsend of the United States advanced to the women’s doubles semifinals following a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Taiwanese Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching.
Earlier in the day, Ontario’s Bianca Andreescu and Australia’s Michael Venus advanced to the mixed doubles final after beating Ontario’s Gabriela Dabrowski and American Nathaniel Lammons 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4).
En route to their win, Fernandez and Townsend converted all four of their break chances while fending off five of the six break points they conceded to their rivals.
Finalist at the United States Open in 2021, Fernandez has been struggling in singles since the start of the year. Her three-set loss to Clara Tauson in the second round in Paris dropped her record to 14-13 since the start of 2023.
However, the Quebecer and the American have had success since they decided, in March, to form a tandem. They made the Miami Open final and the Madrid Open semi-finals, both WTA 1000 category tournaments.
Tenth seeds in the women’s doubles, Fernandez and Townsend will battle Friday in the semi-finals against the American tandem of Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff, ranked second. In the Miami final, Pegula and Gauff defeated Fernandez and Townsend in straight sets.
Andreescu, looking to recapture the level of play that led her to her 2019 U.S. Open triumph and eventual fourth in the world rankings, has looked good in her first two singles matches in Paris . However, she suffered a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko in the third round.
But now she will have the chance to play for a mixed doubles title.
Andreescu and Venus needed a second tiebreaker to reach the final round after they were unable to convert a break point that would have given them a 3-2 lead in the second set.
After both pairs had won their serves for the rest of the set, Andreescu and Venus took a 4-0 lead in the deciding break and ended the clash on their first match point.
In the final on Thursday, Andreescu and Venus will meet the Japanese Miyu Kato and the German Tim Puez.