Roland-Garros: Leylah Fernandez’s final doubles trend

Paris | Since losing her singles, Laila Fernandez has dried her tears and found a smile next to American Taylor Townsend. The duo has something to celebrate as they will play in the women’s doubles final at Roland Garros.

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To everyone’s surprise, Fernandez and Townsend defeated No. 2 seeds Coco Gauff and America’s Jessica Pegula in Friday’s semifinals. But that was without counting on Townsend’s formidable qualities in doubles.

The American-Canadian duo even had the luxury of eliminating their opponent 6-0 in the first set, despite six double faults.

Gauff and Pegula eventually made it to the scoreboard in the second set, but Fernandez and Townsend held firm, racing to a 6-0, 6-4 victory.

A little revenge

Thus, Fernandez and Townsend took revenge, because the Americans defeated them in the final match in Miami, in April. They then reached the quarterfinals on clay in Charleston and the semifinals in Madrid.

This season, Townsend has already won two doubles titles, each time in Adelaide, Australia, with Brazil’s Luisa Stefani and compatriot Asia Mohammed.

In the final, the 20-year-old Quebec and her partner, the winners of the duel between the American Nicole Melichar Martinez and the sixth seed Australian Elaine Perez, will face the Chinese Xinyu Wang and the Taiwanese Su Wei Hsieh.

Fernandez and Townsend will be looking for their first Grand Slam title after Bianca Andreescu of Ontario attempted Thursday in the mixed doubles.

The 27-year-old Chicago native came close to last year’s US Open, but lost out to Katie McNally.