Leylah Fernandez broke through when she needed it most on Friday, beating Mirra Andreeva 6-1, 6-4 at the National Bank Open in Toronto to reach the Round of 16 and land her first Top 10 win in more than a year. The 30th seed needed just 1 hour and 21 minutes to send out the No. 5 seed and turn a frustrating run against elite opponents into the kind of result that can reset a tournament.
That is why the Canadian Open tennis search traffic points here now: Fernandez is not just still alive in her home-country event, she has moved into a matchup with Naomi Osaka that gives the draw a sharper edge. Osaka arrived there with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Elise Merten, and the two have split their previous meetings on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz.
Fernandez did it with discipline rather than flash. She had eight winners and seven unforced errors, while Andreeva kept the bigger shot count with 17 winners but also piled up 34 unforced errors, including 19 in the first set alone. The score line matched the way the match felt: Fernandez kept putting balls back, stayed patient and made Andreeva play one more shot, then one more after that, until the errors mounted.
That approach was no accident. Fernandez said she had trained growing up on consistency drills, the sort that ask a player to hit a hundred balls in a row without missing, and she leaned on that pattern when the points lengthened. She said she kept telling herself to stay positive, stay strong and be patient, trusting her fitness and her ability to survive long rallies if that was what it took to break Andreeva down.
The upset matters because Andreeva was the No. 5 seed, and Fernandez had entered the match having lost her last seven matches against Top 10 opponents. The victory ended that skid and gave Fernandez her first Top 10 win in more than a year, with the last one coming when she beat then-World No. 4 Jessica Pegula on the way to winning the Mubadala DC Open last year. It also sent her back to the Round of 16 in Toronto after she last reached that stage in Montreal in 2023.
Osaka is the next test, and she has already shown she is seeing the court well enough with a quick win of her own. She said the toughest part of facing Fernandez is the left-handed angle and added that Fernandez has a really good attitude, rarely looks down and keeps fighting. Fernandez has already shown she can absorb pressure and keep coming; the question now is whether that same patience can carry her through a deeper round against a player who knows her well.
