(Paris) Quebecer Leylah Fernandez and her American partner Taylor Townsend lost in the women’s doubles final of the French Tennis Open in three sets of 6-1, 6-7 (5), 1-6 against Taiwanese Hsieh Su -wei and China’s Wang Xinyu on Sunday afternoon in Paris.
For Fernandez, who is only 20 years old, it was the second appearance in a Grand Slam tournament final since the start of her professional career, and a first in women’s doubles. In 2021, Fernandez lost the U.S. Open singles final to Emma Raducanu.
Sunday’s setback came three days after Ontarian Bianca Andreescu’s loss in the mixed doubles final.
“I think we came so close and there were only a few mistakes on my part at key points. I said to myself “if only I could have made a different shot here and there, maybe the result would have been different”. We’ll never know,” Fernandez said.
“I’m just super proud of how we’ve found solutions for every game from the very beginning. We just get better and better, and we communicate better,” added the Quebecer.
On Sunday, on the court of the Philippe-Chatrier stadium, Fernandez’s dream came very close to coming true, especially after a first set that she and Townsend largely dominated.
The two North Americans could even have won the only game they lost in this set, the very first of the match, in which they failed to convert three break chances.
But Hsieh and Wang, who were only playing a second tournament together, lost nothing by waiting. Fernandez and Townsend won the next six games, conceding just seven points in that streak and only four in the last five games.
The set only lasted 27 minutes.
The tide of the match changed however at the start of the second set when the two Asians combined to break Townsend’s serve in the first game of the set.
After saving two break points in the fourth game, Hsieh and Wang looked on course to win the second set without too much trouble. But that was without taking into account an unexpected recovery from their rivals.
Trailing 3-5 and facing a 0-40 drop on Townsend’s serve, the two North Americans won the next five points, and the game. Then they followed it up with their first break of the set, thanks to a powerful smash from Townsend, bringing the duel to even service.
Both pairs then won their respective serves to force a tiebreaker that ended in favor of the Asians when a volley from Townsend landed beyond the baseline.
Hsieh and Wang took control of the decisive set by winning the first three games, including the second on Fernandez’s serve, when the Quebecer saw her cross volley, on the forehand, fall outside the doubles corridor.
Despite this, the duel could have taken a different turn in the fifth game, perhaps the most exciting of the match.
After almost 11 minutes of sustained action, and after saving four break points, the two Asians managed to win their serves to take a 4-1 lead.
They added a break on the next game and sealed their victory when Hsieh slammed an untouchable spike from close to the net on the Asians’ second match point after two hours nine minutes of action.
Fernandez had somehow found a way to save the first match point with a volley she landed while using her racquet to shield her face.
Ranked 10th among the competition’s seeds, Fernandez and Townsend were in their fifth tournament together in 2023, having started their partnership in March at the Indian Wells tournament.
Less than a month into the partnership, Fernandez and Townsend made it to the Miami Open final, where they lost to Americans Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff.
In Friday’s semi-finals, Fernandez and Townsend avenged that failure with panache, winning 6-0, 6-4 in 64 minutes against Pegula and Gauff, the tournament’s second seeds.
By early May, Fernandez and Townsend had also reached the women’s doubles semi-finals at the Madrid Open, a tournament played on clay, as is the case at Roland Garros.
During their run to the French Open final, Fernandez and Townsend had conceded only one set, the second in their third-round match against Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Brazil’s Luisa Stefani, who were seeded eighth. tournament seeds.
“This is our first [Grand Slam] together. Not too bad ! “Launched Townsend at the microphone, on the court, during the trophy ceremony.
Earlier this week, Fernandez shared that she learned from Townsend how to move on from those setbacks faster. After the defeat on Sunday, we could also see Townsend, seven years the eldest of the Quebecer, busy comforting her partner.
“I do things with sincerity. I didn’t do it for the cameras or for the image. I was really looking Leylah in the eye and I said, ‘No. We have lost. And after ? And after ? This is our first [Grand] Slam tournament,” Townsend said.
