MONTERREY, MEXICO -- Montrealer Leylah Annie Fernandez saw her run end in the quarterfinals at the Monterrey tournament, losing to Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-4, 7-5.
Svitolina, tournament favourite and seventh-best tennis player in the world, needed an hour 38 minutes to beat Fernandez, who is ranked 126th.
Fernandez struggled to counter the power of her rival and showed weakness in the second serves, where she only won 48 per cent of her points. Svitolina was more efficient, winning 69 percent of her points on her second serves.
More seasoned than her 17-year-old rival, Svitolina saved the five breakpoints that she awarded to Fernandez. She also took advantage of two of the eight break opportunities she obtained.
Since her spectacular victory against the Swiss Belinda Bencic in the Fed Cup on Feb. 8, Fernandez won eight of her next nine games, including two victories in qualifying matches. She had conceded only three sets to her rivals.
Her only loss came last Sunday against Heather Watson in the final of the Acapulco tournament.
In the semi-finals, Svitolina will cross paths with the winner of the duel between the Dutch Arantxa Rus and the Swedish Rebecca Peterson.
In the other portion of the table, the Czech Maria Bouzkova will face the British Johanna Konta.
Bouzkova defeated Chinese Yafan Wang 6-2, 7-5 in the quarterfinals, while Konta won 6-7 (6), 6-3, 7-6 (7) against Russian Anastasia Potapova.
