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An ugly coaching controversy made it shine Leylah Fernandez’s extraordinary journey in the US Open final.
The 19-year-old Canadian continued her giant death race on Thursday, upset world number 2 Aryna Sabalenka to seal his place in the final at Flushing Meadows.
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However, the victory did not come without controversy, with The great American tennis player Pam Shriver accuses Fernandez of being coached during the match.
Fernandez and Sabalenka were locked in a tense battle early in the second set when the controversy erupted.
In Game 5 of the second set and the score stuck at 2-2, Shriver noticed that Fernandez’s coach and physio may have broken the rules.
Under one of the most controversial rules in tennis, coaches are not allowed to offer any form of coaching during matches.
Sitting next to the court for ESPN, Shriver said: “There’s a lot of ‘third base’ coaching going on. Fernandez is on the end near his player’s box and the referee has to watch over there.”
Shriver said the coach was telling Fernandez to “calm down” and use “precise signals”.
“There are three points, there was a clear ‘calm’ with the hands,” added Shriver.
“I mean you think about what happened here three years ago
“Any kind of waving hand that gets a message is a practice, it wasn’t an encouragement.”
Shriver was of course referring to the code violation that Serena Williams received in infamous 2018 US Open final.
Williams completely derailed against Naomi Osaka when she received a warning for allegedly receiving training from Patrick Mouratoglou.
After a heated argument with chair umpire Carlos Ramos, Williams was eventually hit with a penalty point when she received two more code violations.
Shriver also took to social media earlier in the tournament to claim Fernandez was being coached, while fans joined in denouncing the apparent rule violation.
Leylah Fernandez in the US Open final
Fernandez had already won a tiebreaker in the first set before winning 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-4.
The 19-year-old Canadian won the last four points of the first-set tiebreaker to overcome a brutal departure from Sabalenka.
Sabalenka appeared keen to dominate Fernandez early on, winning 12 of the first 14 points and leading to a 3-0 lead in just eight minutes.
But Fernandez stabilized and then took advantage of volatile play in Sabalenka’s tiebreaker, including an overload she planted far from bounds and a double fault.
The Belarusian managed to bounce back and send the game in a third set, winning the second 6-4.
However, the world No.2 strained while serving to stay in the game at 4-5 in the third, with Fernandez winning the game to enjoy reserving her place in the final.
Sabalenka also lost in the Wimbledon semifinals in their only other major semifinal.
Fernandez is the second 19-year-old Canadian to make the women’s final at Flushing Meadows in the past three years after Bianca Andreescu won the title in 2019.
she knocked out former US Open champions Naomi Osaka and Angelique Kerber with No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina on her crazy race.
with Associated Press
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