Friday produced a huge upset in the world of tennis after reigning US Open champion Naomi Osaka suffered a shock defeat in the third round of the Grand Slam tournament. The highly popular Osaka was upset by 18-year-old Canadian national Leylah Fernandez.
Osaka took the first set rather convincingly, but Fernandez rallied back to take the second and third sets en route to what is easily the biggest upset of the US Open thus far.
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18-year-old 🇨🇦 Leylah Annie Fernandez comes back from a set & a break down to defeat 2020 #USOpen champion 🇯🇵 Naomi Osaka 5-7, 7-6, 6-4
One of the great upsets in Canadian tennis history
Next up: 🆚 🇩🇪 [16] Kerber on Sunday
— Mark Masters (@markhmasters) September 4, 2021
Naomi Osaka came into Friday's matchup as the third seed. The 23-year-old was also on a 16-game winning streak in Slam matches, so to say that she was the heavy favorite against Fernandez would be an understatement.
Such is the game of tennis, though, and the Canadian teenager had the performance of her life against a true champion in Osaka. The unseeded Fernandez will now face off against Angelique Kerber of Germany on Sunday in the fourth round. Kerber is ranked 16th in the world so she will be the favorite to come out of this matchup. Then again, we all just witnessed Fernandez's heroics against Naomi Osaka, so it would be foolish to count her out right now.
Leylah Fernandez is now a few wins away from making her mark on the US Open. Do we smell another fairytale rise in the works here?
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