Western & Southern Open: Fernandez books spot in quarter-finals

Canadian Leylah Fernandez advanced to the last eight of the Western & Southern Open by beating Russian Diana Shnaider 6-1, 6-4 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center in Cincinnati on Friday night.

Fernandez, ranked No 27, will face the winner of the match between No 6 seed Jessica Pegula and qualifier Taylor Townsend next.

Earlier in the tournament, the 21-year-old Canadian won against Chinese Yue Yuan (3-6, 6-4, 6-3) and edged out Kazakh Elena Rybakina, the No 4 seed (3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4).

Shnaider, ranked No 20, defeated Chinese Shuai Zhang (6-1, 6-4) and American qualifier Ashlyn Krueger (7-5, 6-0) in the previous rounds of the Cincy Open.

Cincinnati WTA 1000, other last 16 results (Lindner Family Tennis Center, hard, USD 3.211.715, most recent results first):

• Qinwen Zheng vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
• Jessica Pegula vs. Taylor Townsend
• Paula Badosa vs. Yulia Putintseva: friday
• Aryna Sabalenka (3) beat Elina Svitolina: 7-5, 6-2
• Mirra Andreeva beat Jasmine Paolini (5): 3-6, 6-3, 6-2
• Liudmila Samsonova (10) beat Elina Avanesyan (LL): 4-6, 6-0, 6-3
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Marta Kostyuk (15): 6-2, 6-2