Tennis Grandstand

Unique Tennis Perspectives

You are here: Home / Archives for Leylah Fernandez

Leylah Fernandez

Clijsters, Fernandez, Sock and Baghdatis To Compete In Latest Champions Series Tennis Mixed Team Event In St. Louis

by Leave a Comment

LOS ANGELES – Hall of Famer Kim Clijsters and 2021 U.S. Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez will join four-time major doubles champ Jack Sock and 2006 Australian Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis at the St. Louis Champions Classic, July 21 at Chaifetz Arena.

The event will be the second ever mixed team format event on the Champions Series tennis circuit featuring men’s and women’s legends competing throughout the year for prize money and the season-long points championship.

Clijsters and Sock will play as a team against Fernandez and Baghdatis, each playing a set of singles and then pairing for a deciding mixed doubles match.

The event will feature $75,000 in prize money with $50,000 going to the winning team and $25,000 to the runner-up. The winning team members will each be awarded 200 ranking points while the runner-up team members will be awarded 100 ranking points towards the season-long championship. Each player will also be awarded 100 ranking points for every singles match they participate in and an additional 100 ranking points for each victory.

“This is going to be a very special and exciting night of tennis, featuring two legend players competing against two current touring pros which will make for a fascinating dynamic,” said Jon Venison, Co-President of InsideOut Sports & Entertainment, the organization that founded and runs Champions Series Tennis.

Tickets are for sale starting Thursday, June 2 at www.ChampionsSeriesTennis.com and www.ticketmaster.com.

Earlier this year, Genie Bouchard and Tommy Haas were victorious in the first-ever Champions Series mixed team event at the Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, Calif., defeating Sofia Kenin and Sam Querrey two matches to one. Champions Series Tennis will also stage events in 2022 in Dallas, The Greenbrier in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, Orlando and other sites to be announced. Full player fields and event dates will be announced in the near future.

For the St. Louis Champions Classic, the event will start with “Play with the Pros” fan experiences from 3 pm to 5 pm, followed by a “Player Party Experience” and a “Backstage Experience” starting at 5:30 pm. Sock and Baghdatis will kick off match play at 7 pm, followed by Clijsters and Fernandez and concluding with the mixed doubles match. Champions Series Tennis began in 2005 and over the last 16 years has featured some of the greatest names in men’s tennis, including Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, John McEnroe, Bjorn Borg, Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Jim Courier, Michael Chang among others. Courier won the first Champions Series Tennis event held in 2005 in Houston at the Westside Tennis Club.

ABOUT INSIDEOUT SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT

InsideOut Sports + Entertainment is a Los Angeles based producer of proprietary events and promotions founded in 2004 by former world No. 1 and Hall of Fame tennis player Jim Courier and former SFX and Clear Channel executive Jon Venison. In 2005, InsideOut launched its signature property, the Champions Series, a collection of tournaments featuring the greatest names in tennis over the age of 30. In addition, InsideOut produces many other successful events including “Legendary Night” exhibitions, The World Series of Beach Volleyball and numerous corporate outings. Since inception, InsideOut Sports + Entertainment has raised over $5 million for charity. In 2014, InsideOut Sports + Entertainment merged with Horizon Media, the largest privately held media services agency in the world. For more information, please log on to www.InsideOutSE.com or InvescoSeries.com or follow on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Kim Clijsters
Kim Clijsters

Roland Garros turns into battleground for teen sensations

by Leave a Comment

Cori Gauff has reached the quarterfinals of Roland Garros, just as she managed to do in last year’s edition of the French Open. The 18 year old cast aside Belgian hopeful Elise Mertens in straight sets 6-4, 6-0 and has not lost a set in Paris yet.

Canadian Leylah Fernandez , the 19 year old finalist of the US Open and former youth champion of Roland Garros in 2018, followed Gauff’s example by beating American neighbor Amanda Anisimova in three sets 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.

Cori Gauff, who beat 26 year old Mertens last year at Eastbourne, had trouble getting into the match. In the first set she was made to work to fix a break twice just to break her opponent and take the set.

Mertens won two points in the second set but Gauff put her house in order and made 13 points in a row to 3-0. The rest of the match Mertens was left trailing, who reached the 1/8 finales in 2018, Cori Gauff.

Anisimova, semi finalist in 2019, was behind 4-0 in the blink of an eye who only cashed in on her fifth setpoint. In the second set Anisimova gave away a break at 5-3 but showed willpower but breaking back immediately. Fernandez won third set with only three misses.

Fernandez is now the highest seeded player (17th seed) in the bottom half of the draw. She will now draw Martina Trevisan. The Italian number 59 of the world beat Belarussian Aljaksandra Sasnovitsj with 7-6 (10), 7-5.