Leylah Fernandez will not return to her Clay-lah exploits of previous years at the Rome Open at least after she was well beaten by Ana Bogdan in the opening round on Tuesday afternoon.
Bogdan will now face Marketa Vondrousova in the second round after sealing a 6-4, 6-1 win over Fernandez in just over an hour and 40 minutes in one of the main ties of the day. But just like Andreeva-Badosa, it was the player seen as less likely to prevail that won the day.
It is the first time that Bogdan in a main WTA tournament has won past the first round since the Transylvania Open in February where she reached the final losing to Karolina Pliskova. The only other time she has got past the first round was at a WTA 125k in Lleida last week only to lose to Mayar Sherif.
Fernandez won against Anastasia Potapova last week at the Madrid Open, but fell to Ons Jabeur and hasn't been in great form herself as of late. But this is technically her worst loss for a while. After a back and forth opening juncture to the set, it was a break of serve back by Bogdan that handed her a 3-2 lead. After initially having the chance to win the opener at 5-3, she finally sealed it at 6-4. The second set was a lot more one-sided.
Until the latter half of the contest, Fernandez had no joy in attacking the Bogdan serve. Fernandez on the other hand ended up breaking three times in a row including to seal the win. A poor loss for the Canadian.