EASTBOURNE — Quebec’s Leylah Annie Fernandez qualified for the final of the Rothesay International, a grass-court tournament, on Friday.
Fernandez defeated defending champion Madison Keys in three sets of 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in this booster tournament ahead of Wimbledon.
The Laval resident will now face Daria Kasatkina, who defeated the Italian Jasmine Paolini in three sets of 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the other semi-final.
Saturday’s match will be Fernandez’s sixth career final, but her first on grass. It will also be her first at a WTA 500 or better event since the 2021 US Open.
Fernandez, who reached the quarter-finals in Birmingham earlier in June, said she was happy with her form on grass ahead of the Wimbledon tournament.
Beating Keys, ranked 12th and a two-time champion in Eastbourne, only increases her confidence heading into a Grand Slam event.
“We have worked very hard in the last few months (and) years, so I am very happy with the results in the last few weeks,” Fernandez said. “It is good preparation for Wimbledon, but we will just focus on the final (on Saturday).”
Kasatkina said Fernandez’s aggressive style is a natural fit for the grass-court game.
“The grass suits Leylah Annie really well,” she said. “She’s in great shape now and she’s beaten some really good players this week. In the final, everyone wants to win, so I’m just going to try to have fun and see how this final goes.”
Ontario’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her partner, New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe, will play for the women’s doubles title in Eastbourne on Saturday, after beating Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Japan’s Makoto Ninomiya 6-7 (2), 6- 4, 10-8 in the semi-final.
Dabrowski and Routliffe, a dual citizen who grew up in Caledon, Ontario, will face the pair of Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko in the final. The latter got the better of Harriet Dart and Maia Lumsden.
