Agency :
Leylah Fernandez’s storybook US Open continued with yet another upset on Thursday as the Canadian teenager shocked second seed Aryna Sabalenka 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-4 to reach her first Grand Slam final.
Rankings-wise, the second seeded Belarusian represented the toughest challenge yet for the 19-year-old lefhander but with a string of seeded victims behind her Fernandez had already shown she could not be intimidated.
The Canadian has stated she could beat anyone and backed up the bravado with victories over four-time Grand Slam winner and defending champion Naomi Osaka in the third round, three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber in the fourth and fifth seed Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals.
One of the game’s big servers Sabalenka threw everything she had at Fernandez, including 10 aces, but had no better luck against the youngster, who played with veteran poise throughout the three-set thriller.
“Impossible is nothing,” said Fernandez. “Like my dad would tell me all the time, there’s no limit to my potential, to what I can do. “Every day we just got to keep working hard, we got to keep going for it.
“There’s no limit to what I can do.”
Ranked number 73 in the world at the start of the US Open, getting to the Grand Slam final would have been considered Mission Impossible by many, but on Saturday Fernandez will take on British qualifier 18-year-old Emma Raducanu, who has also beaten huge odds to set up an all-teenage final.
