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topicnews · September 27, 2024

MATCH REPORT | China Open 2024: Peyton Stearns defeats Leylah Fernandez and now meets Anna Kalinskaya

MATCH REPORT | China Open 2024: Peyton Stearns defeats Leylah Fernandez and now meets Anna Kalinskaya

Peyton Stearns will face Anna Kalinskaya in the round of the 2024 China Open after defeating Leylah Fernandez in third place, overcoming the Canadian’s lack of form and progressing to the third round.
Stearns lost early in Korea last week to Emma Raducanu, who was subsequently injured. The American reached the third round at the US Open. She will now face No. 10 seed Anna Kalinskaya on Sunday after losing 7-5, 6-2.

Stearns opened her campaign by easily defeating Jessica Bouzas Maneiro on Wednesday. The same goes for Fernandez. They haven’t won since reaching the quarterfinals in Cincinnati in August and have now suffered three straight defeats.

It was a fairly even start to the contest with Stearns leading 3-1 and 4-2. However, that lead was diminished by a break from Fernandez at 4-4, which perhaps opened the door to the game as she held on until 5-4. But as she moved towards winning the set, she was broken and Stearns took a 6-5 lead and then sealed it 7-5. It seemed like she was going to discourage Fernandez as she broke twice to take a 4-1 lead. Although Fernandez fought back, Stearns took advantage of her sixth chance to take a 5-2 lead and secure the win.

The next is Anna Kalinskaya. She came back from a set down and defeated Hailey Baptiste in a truly shocking moment. They lost the first set 6-3 and won in two tiebreaks to secure their place as the world number 14 battled against the world number 111. There were further victories for Katie Volynets, who eliminated Marta Kostyuk, and Elina Avanesyan, who prevailed in three sets against Caroline Dolehide. Paula Badosa defeated Viktoriya Tomova 6:3, 6:2.

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