(Auckland) Quebec’s Leylah Fernandez signed a second quick victory in as many outings at the ASB Tennis Classic on Thursday in Auckland, eliminating Austria’s Julia Grabher 6-0, 6-1.

Facing the 82e player in the world, Fernandez, herself ranked 40eneeded only 45 minutes to reach the quarter-finals.

The convincing victory came three days after dominating Czech Brenda Fruhvirtova in 61 minutes, 6-1, 6-1, in her first match of the tournament.

Against Grabher, Fernandez completed the first set in 20 minutes and won the first three games of the second set before conceding the fourth game to Grabher. The latter had to erase two break points to win this game.

Fernandez scored five service breaks in 10 opportunities without conceding a single break chance to her rival. The 20-year-old Lavalloise posted a success rate of only 59% on her first serves, but she lost only six points on her serve in the game as a whole.

In the quarterfinals, Fernandez could have found fellow Canadian Rebecca Marino, but the latter lost her flag in three sets of 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 against Belgium’s Ysaline Bonaventure.

Marina, 63e in the ATP rankings finished the match with 16 aces, three double faults and a 71% first-serving success rate.

However, the athlete from British Columbia won only nine of 25 points on his second serves and suffered four breakages. Two of those breaks came in the deciding set, in the first and ninth games.

Raducanu wounded

In another match played on Thursday, Britain’s Emma Raducanu was forced to retire at the start of the third set of her second-round encounter against Slovakia’s Viktoria Kuzmova.

Raducanu only needed 22 minutes to win the first set, 6-0. Kuzmova recovered by winning the second set 7-5.

PHOTO BY RYAN LIM, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES

Emma Raducanu

Raducanu has requested the presence of a trainer to treat an injury to his left ankle, during a long medical break.

The 20-year-old Briton tried to get back into action but was unable to complete the first point of the third set. In tears, she approached the net and announced that she could not continue.

Raducanu was seen as one of the rising stars in women’s tennis following her win over Fernandez in the 2021 US Open final.

Since then, his career has been littered with injuries. Notably, she was forced to retire from four games in 2022. Most recently, Raducanu was plagued with a wrist injury.

Elsewhere, American Venus Williams let slip a 5-3 lead in the third set and lost 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 to China’s Zhu Lin.

The 42-year-old Williams battled with vigor throughout the duel which began shortly after noon local time and ended around 7 p.m. The match started outdoors and ended under a roof due to rain.

In the quarter-finals, Zhu will face American Coco Gauff, ranked seventh in the world and the tournament’s first seed. In another match played under a roof, Gauff prevailed in just under 90 minutes, 6-4, 6-4 against compatriot Sofia Kenin.

Seventh-seeded Danka Kovinic and qualifier Rebeka Masarova also made it to the next stage.