US Open '21 Fernandez Into QF

Giant Killer Fernandez Marches On

LEYLAH FERNANDEZ defeated ANGELIQUE KERBER

4-6, 7-6, 6-2

Leylah Fernandez has backed up her giant-killing efforts. After eliminating Japanese superstar Naomi Osaka in the third round, she has gone on to eliminate former World Number 1 and 2016 US Open champion Angelique Kerber. She now advances to the quarter-finals of this year's tournament.

The unseeded Canadian used her serve and devastating forehand to rock the German superstar as she dares to dream of success at Flushing Meadows having reached the final 8.

After dropping the first set, Leylah won a tie break in the second set and continued with her momentum to break Kerber twice in the third set to seal her victory. The 19-year-old will go on to face number 5 seed Elina Svitolina who eliminated Simona Halep with relative ease, defeating her in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.

Fernandez had this to say in her post-match press conference -

"The match was incredible, I was playing well in the first set. Unfortunately, I did a few mistakes. She, as a great player, great champion, she noticed and she took advantage of it. I was able to refocus and fight back for the second. In the third, I was just enjoying every moment of it. At 3-4 [in the second set], I don't know if it was just a mindset or it was a feeling, but I just felt like that was the moment that I was going to break her serve and I was able to figure it out, I was just glad I was having fun on the court. I was trusting my game at 100 percent. I have been working hard every day since the day I started playing tennis and since the day I set my mind to being a professional, I expected that one day my tennis game is going to come through and that I'm going to be on the big stage in front of a big crowd playing against big players and also getting the wins."

Leylah Fernandez vs Elina Svitolina will take place Monday afternoon in New York.