Canada’s Shapovalov advances, Fernandez ousted in Miami Open tennis​on March 22, 2025 at 10:14 pm

MIAMI — Canada’s Denis Shapovalov reached the third round of men’s singles at the Miami Open while Leylah Fernandez was ousted in the third round of women’s singles in the tennis tournament Saturday.

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Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., battled through a 6-3, 6-7(1), 7-6(3) win over Argentina’s Thiago Tirante that lasted just under two hours 25 minutes.

It was Shapovalov’s first match at the Masters 1000 event after a first-round bye.

Fernandez fell 6-1, 7-5 to Ashlyn Krueger of the United States.

The 27th-seeded Shapovalov’s next opponent is third seed Taylor Fritz of the U.S. The American downed Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego in straight sets to advance.

Shapovalov prevailed over Tirante by winning 75 per cent of his first-serve points, but the Canadian also double faulted 11 times to Tirante’s one at the Hard Rock Stadium.

The Canadian had a chance to close it out in the second set when he led 6-3, 5-3, 40-love, but Tirante saved three match points, forced a decider, and then rallied from a breakdown to extend the match.

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The 20-year-old Krueger held her serve throughout the match against Fernandez and won 32 return points to the Canadian’s 19.

The 22-year-old Fernandez returned to the court Saturday with doubles partner Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the U.S. The duo lost 6-2, 7-6(6) to Sofia Kenin of the U.S. and Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine.

Second seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand were to face China’s Xinyu Wang and Saisai Zheng in a later women’s doubles match Saturday.

Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime was also still in contention in men’s singles. He meets 15th seed Lorenzo Musetti of Italy on Sunday.

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