Leylah Fernandez’s Clay-lah exploits from previous years won’t be repeated at the Rome Open this time around, as she suffered a convincing defeat by Ana Bogdan in the opening round on Tuesday afternoon.
Bogdan will advance to the second round to face Marketa Vondrousova after securing a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Fernandez in just over an hour and 40 minutes, making it one of the main matches of the day. Similar to the Andreeva-Badosa match, the player perceived as less likely to win emerged victorious.
This marks the first time Ana Bogdan has progressed past the first round in a main WTA tournament since the Transylvania Open in February, where she made it to the final but was defeated by Karolina Pliskova. Her only other advancement past the first round was at a WTA 125k event in Lleida last week, where she ultimately lost to Mayar Sherif.
Despite Fernandez’s recent win against Anastasia Potapova at the Madrid Open, her form hasn’t been stellar lately, and this loss to Bogdan is technically her worst in a while. The first set saw a back-and-forth struggle, with Bogdan eventually securing a 6-4 win after initially missing a chance to close it out at 5-3. The second set, however, was more one-sided.
Until the latter half of the contest, Fernandez struggled to find success in attacking Bogdan’s serve. In contrast, Fernandez managed to break Bogdan’s serve three times in a row, ultimately securing the victory. Overall, it’s considered a disappointing loss for the Canadian player.