Taylor Townsend (USA) and Leylah Fernandez (FIL-CAN) are one step closer to crowing glory at the French Open. – USA Today
Leylah Fernandez and Taylor Townsend toppled second-seeded Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula 6-0, 6-4to reach the women’s doubles final at the French Open on Friday.
The 10th seeded Canadian-Filipino and American pair will face unseeded Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan and Wang Xinyu of China in Sunday’s final. Hsieh and Wang upset sixth-seeded Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
It will be the first Grand Slam final in doubles for Fernandez, the 2021 U.S. Open runner-up in singles who was born and raised in Canada with Filipino and Ecuadorian roots.
Fernandez became a household name in the Philippines in 2021 after beating seeded tennis players Naomi Osaka (No 2) and Aryna Sabalenka (No 3) to reach the US Open final
In 202 she made her Grand Slam debut in the Australia Open and was also part of the Canadian tennis team that competed in the Tokyo Olympics.
Townsend, in her only other major final, was runner-up with Caty McNally at last year’s U.S. Open to Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova.
ALSO READ
Gauff and Pegula were last year’s runner-up in women’s doubles at Roland Garros, where Fernandez and Townsend lost to Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic.
The 37-year-old Hsieh is a four-time Grand Slam doubles champion. Hsieh and Peng Shuai won the women’s doubles title at the 2014 French Open.
Read the full article here
