No. 6 seed Leylah Fernandez reached her first semifinal of the season Friday, continuing her hard-court dominance over No. 1 seed Mirra Andreeva with a 6-2, 7-5 victory in the quarterfinals of the WTA Singapore Tennis Open.
Fernandez had won both of her previous hard-court meetings with Andreeva, in Hong Kong in 2023 and Toronto earlier this year, while Andreeva had won both of their previous meetings on clay.
After saving two break points in the third game of the first set, Fernandez broke Andreeva and pulled away to take the set 6-2. Both players saved break points early in the second set, but the Canadian continued to capitalize on Andreeva’s errors and moved a break ahead to lead 5-2.
Andreeva rallied to raise hopes of a comeback, breaking back and leveling the set at 5-5. Fernandez, however, broke again in the 12th game to complete the victory in 1 hour, 32 minutes.
By the end of the match, Andreeva’s unforced error count stood at 41, compared with 30 for Fernandez. The Canadian also hit more winners – 13 to 12 for her opponent.
The victory was Fernandez’s biggest of the season and the ninth of her career against a Top 10 opponent.
Fernandez will face No. 5 seed Maja Chwalinska in the semifinals Saturday. The Pole, a Roland Garros runner-up, defeated No. 4 seed Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-2 to reach the last four. It will be the first meeting between Chwalinska and Fernandez.
Also advancing to the semifinals was Tatiana Prozorova, who rallied from a set down to defeat China’s Xinyu Wang 3-6, 7-5, 6-4 to reach her first WTA Tour-level semifinal. Prozorova will face the winner of Friday’s final quarterfinal between No. 7 seed Maria Sakkari and Australia’s Talia Gibson.