Leylah Annie Fernandez of Montreal, Quebec came through with one of the biggest wins of her tennis career on Thursday as she beat Jessica Pegula of the United States, 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 in the third round of the 2025 Citi Open in Washington. This was a battle of United States Open finalists. Fernandez reached the final in 2021 before losing to Emma Raducanu of Great Britain, 6-4, 6-3. Pegula reached the final in 2024 before losing to Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus 7-5, 6-4.
Fernandez will next play another American in the quarterfinals. Her opponent will be her former doubles partner, Taylor Townsend. This will be their first meeting head-to-head. Townsend and Fernandez reached the final together of the 2023 French Open women’s doubles championship, before losing to Su-wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Xinyu Wang of China, 1-6, 7-6, 6-1.
This is the first time in three meetings that Fernandez has beaten Pegula. The first time they played came in the third round of Miami in 2024, which Pegula won 7-5, 6-4. The second time came in the quarterfinals of Cincinnati in 2024, which Pegula won 7-5, 6-7, 7-6.
The quarterfinal between Townsend and Fernandez will be the second of four quarterfinals throughout the day. The other three quarterfinals have Raducanu versus 2021 French Open and United States Open semifinalist Maria Sakkari of Greece, 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan versus Magdalena Frech of Poland, and Clara Tauson of Denmark versus Anna Kalinskaya of Russia.