Leylah Fernandez reaches fourth WTA final of career in Monterrey, Osorio awaits

Leylah Fernandez stormed into the fourth WTA final of her career—and first since the US Open—on Saturday night, defeating Beatriz Haddad Maia in the semifinals of Monterrey, 6-1, 6-4, to improve to 4-0 in her career in WTA semifinal matches.

She’s now on a nine-match winning streak in Monterrey, going 5-0 en route to the title last year and now 4-0 at the WTA 250 hard-court event so far this week.

“I’m very very happy to be here,” Fernandez said in her on-court interview. “I just finished a match early this morning, so I’m happy everybody was back here to support me, cheering me on, because that really helped me through.”

Fernandez, who finished her quarterfinal match against former No. 12 Wang Qiang in the early hours of Saturday morning, came out strong against Haddad Maia on Saturday night, breezing through the first set in 22 minutes—the 50-minute second set was tighter, but Fernandez grabbed an early break and held the rest of the way.

She had nearly even winners to unforced errors in the match, 14 to 16. She also had a 77% first serve percentage and converted three of four break point chances.

The Canadian has a 1-2 career record in WTA finals, winning her first WTA title in Monterrey a year ago and finishing runner-up twice, both to Brits, at Acapulco in 2020 (to Heather Watson) and at the US Open last year (to Emma Raducanu).

Awaiting Fernandez in the final will be Colombia’s Camila Osorio, who outdid first-time WTA semifinalist Nuria Parrizas Diaz of Spain in the first semifinal of the night, 6-4, 6-4.

Osorio, who took out top seed Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals the night before, is now through to the third WTA final of her career, her first two coming last year—she won a clay-court title on home soil in Bogota in the spring, then finished runner-up in Tenerife, Spain on hard courts in the fall (falling to American Ann Li in the final).

Fernandez will be playing the 20-year-old Colombian for the first time.

“It’s going to be a very, very hard match,” the Canadian said. “There’s two young players in the finals, which is great for the WTA. It’s going to be an amazing match.

"I’m just going to have fun.”