MONTERIE, Mexico – Quebec Leylah Annie Fernandez advanced to the semifinals of the Monterrey Tennis Tournament after beating Qiang Wang 7-6 (4), 6-4 on Friday night.

Fernandez, the second, sealed the match in one hour and 47 minutes in Mexico. It was the first match of his career between Fernandez and Wang, the 116th player in the world.

The 21st player in the world broke twice in three cases, while she stole the service of the 30-year-old Chinese woman three times in 10 opportunities.

Fernandez, however, made three double faults to the former 12th player in the world. However, she recovered well, gaining 76.2% of the points with her first serve, against only 57.9% of Wang.

Fernandez, who is just 19 years old, will face Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia in the semifinals on Saturday night. Maia is 69th in the world and has never won a tournament in her career.

Fernandez, the finalist of the US Open 2021, is chasing a second career title in the WTA Tour singles.

Svitolina was excluded

Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, No. 1, was eliminated in the quarterfinals, losing in three sets to Colombia’s Camila Osorio.

Svitolina, the 15th player in the world, had announced that she would donate all her winnings in this tournament to the victims of the Russian invasion of her country. He looked well on his way to the semifinals, winning the first set 6-1.

But Osorio did not give up, returning two breaks in the third set to win it in the tiebreak and complete the victory with 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7/5).

Earlier this week, Svitolina originally planned to boycott her first-round match against Russia’s Anastasia Potapova. She was then allowed to play without being described as Russian and Svitolina defeated her 6-2, 6-1.