Leylah Fernandez, U.S. partner Taylor Townsend advance to Miami Open doubles semifinals | CBC Sports

Canada’s Leylah Fernandez and American partner Taylor Townsend advanced to the Miami Open women’s doubles semifinals Tuesday with a 2-6, 7-6 (4), 10-8 win over Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and Lyudmyla Kichenok of Ukraine.

Fernandez and Townsend were accurate on 88.9 per cent of first serves in the final set and won 66.7 per cent of total service points.

Ostapenko and Kichenok, seeded third in the women’s doubles draw, won the first set after converting two of their three breakpoint opportunities.

Fernandez, of Laval, Que., and Townsend then won a second-set tiebreak to force a decisive third set.

The North Americans will next face the winners of a quarterfinal between Poland’s Magda Linette and American Bernarda Pera and Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu and Ukraine’s Anhelina Kalinina.

Fernandez lost in the second round of the singles side of the tournament to No. 9 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.

Rybakina boasts 46 aces in 4 matches

Reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina extended her winning streak to 12 matches and delivered at least 10 aces for the fourth straight outing while beating 25th-seeded Martina Trevisan 6-3, 6-0 on Tuesday to reach the semifinals.

Rybakina’s 10 aces raised her totals to 46 through four matches at the hard-court tournament in Florida and a WTA-leading 201 this season.

The 23-year-old, who represents Kazakhstan, improved to 20-4 in 2023, including a run to the Australian Open final in January and a title at Indian Wells, California, last week.

She is trying to become only the fifth player to win the women’s trophies at Indian Wells and Miami in the same season. Top-ranked Iga Swiatek did it a year ago. She withdrew from Miami this time because of a rib injury.

So far in Rybakina’s career, 13 of her 18 semifinal appearances have come on hard courts. She will face No. 3 Jessica Pegula or No. 27 Anastasia Potapova for a berth in the final.

Trevisan reached the French Open semifinals in 2022.

Fritz upends Rune

In fourth-round men’s action Tuesday, Taylor Fritz and Jannik Sinner beat seeded opponents in straight sets.

No. 9 Fritz compiled twice as many winners, 22, as unforced errors, 11, and only dropped serve once during a 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 7 Holger Rune.

That put Fritz, the highest-ranked American man, into his first quarterfinal in seven appearances at the hard-court tournament.

He will face either No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz or Australian Open semifinalist Tommy Paul next. Alcaraz is the defending champion in Miami.

No. 10 Sinner eliminated No. 6 Andrey Rublev 6-2, 6-4 and has yet to drop a set in the tournament.

Sinner’s next opponent will be No. 26 Botic van de Zandschulp or unseeded Emil Ruusuvuori.