Leylah Fernandez loses 'battle of qualifiers' in Abu Dhabi to Shelby Rogers

Both Leylah Fernandez and Shelby Rogers needed to play qualifiers in order to make it to the main draw and today Rogers was the one that proved better than her opponent 6-4 5-7 6-1.

The match was a very interesting one as Fernandez demonstrated her typical up-and-down tennis with Rogers being the more stable player. It was rather predictable in the way it went as Rogers was able to win the first set 6-4 after Fernandez missed a huge chance to go up a break. She was up 40-15 on the serve of Rogers but she failed to get it done and then got broken in the next game.

The second set was one where both players played really well as neither player was able to get a breakthrough. We eventually ended up in a tiebreak with Fernandez jumping out to an early 6-2 lead. Rogers crawled back to make it 6-4 but Fernandez converted it with sa service winner. Many expected her to show up and dominate in the final set but that didn't happen.

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She produced a really disjointed effort losing her service early and after that, she fell apart. It's nothing unusual for Fernandez as it's been happening for a while now. Rogers moves on after a gifted third set 6-1.