Canada's Fernandez and U.S. partner Townsend advance to doubles final at French Open

Canada's Leylah Fernandez plays a shot at the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Wednesday, May 31, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Jean-Francois Badias

PARIS -

Canada's Leylah Fernandez and American playing partner Taylor Townsend advanced to the women's doubles finals at the French Open on Friday.

Fernandez and Townsend, seeded 10th at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament, defeated the second-seeded American duo of Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff 6-0, 6-4 at Roland Garros.

Fernandez, of Laval, Que., has struggled in singles competition this year. She fell to 14-13 on the season after dropping her second-round match to Clara Tauson in the singles draw in Paris.

However, she and Townsend have found success as a doubles team since joining forces in March, advancing to the final of the Miami Open, where they lost to Pegula and Gauff in straight sets, and the semifinals of the Madrid Open.

The pair will meet the unseeded duo of Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan and Wang Xinyu of China in the French Open doubles championship match.

It will be Fernandez's first appearance in a Grand Slam final since she reached the women's singles final at the 2021 U.S. Open.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2023.