Leylah Fernandez started off her 2024 Strasbourg Open campaign with a win, beating Anastasia Potapova in three sets.
The Canadian has had an interesting season so far with a couple of solid moments but pretty below-average play overall. Her record before this match was only 8-10, which certainly isn't befitting of a former Grand Slam champion.
Her opponent was a very tricky player who had a better season than her so far, but not that better. Potapova, though, will always be tough with the way she approaches tennis, especially on clay, where her ball-striking can be deadly.
The match was competitive in nature, especially in the first set, where fans saw a lot of chances for both players. Potapova won it 6-4 because she gave the Canadian many problems.
Fernandez was broken twice compared to Potapova, who was broke once, but we saw 17 break chances in total. Play stabilized a bit in the second set, but only a bit because we still saw plenty of break chances (7).
Fernandez, though, looked miles better than Potapova at that point and, after applying heavy pressure for a while, she was able to take the set in the tie-break, winning it 7-4.
The final set was all Fernandez as she took an early break and then added another one for the 3-0 lead, but the Russian pulled one of those back to make it 3-2. Fernandez barely avoided losing that break but she managed to hold serve to make it 4-2.
She then broke once more for a 5-2 lead and finished the match off. The final score was 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-3 for Fernandez, who snapped her two-match losing streak with this win.
This win is her first win in almost a month, and the last player she beat was actually Potapova in Madrid.
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