Ningbo: Fernandez Rallies Past Mertens Into the Last 16

The Ningbo Open already has its first match to remember.

Leylah Annie Fernandez beat Elise Mertens 2-6 6-3 7-5 in the third round of the Chinese WTA 500: 29 games in all, the longest match of this edition, won after trailing 3-5 in the deciding set.

According to the WTA's report, the match lasted two hours and 49 minutes. Mertens, the seventh seed, had taken control with a 6-2 first set; Fernandez changed gears in the second and took it to a decider. There, from 3-5, she reeled off four games in a row to close it out 7-5.

The win matters in the rankings too. The Canadian is No. 29 on the WTA list with 1,764 points: Emma Navarro, No. 28, is just 30 points ahead, Nikola Bartunkova, No. 30, 53 behind. The site projects 1,814 points if she gets past the next round and 2,209 if she wins the title.

The season says Fernandez is in form. In Singapore she won the WTA 500, beating Talia Gibson 7-5 6-0 in the final after getting past Maja Chwalinska in the semifinal and Mirra Andreeva in the quarterfinals, 6-2 7-5. Then came the last 16 in Wuhan, the third round at the US Open and now this win: in her last ten matches she has seven wins and three losses.

Looking back, Fernandez ended 2025 with 30 wins, 24 losses and two titles, one of them in Osaka, a WTA 250. Over the next six weeks she has only the 98 points of her Hong Kong semifinal to defend, so there is room to climb the rankings, starting with this tournament.

In the last 16 on Wednesday, October 21, she faces Aliaksandra Sasnovich. The Belarusian is No. 117 live with 658 points and got here by beating Daria Kasatkina 6-4 6-2, a player who lifted the Ningbo trophy in 2024. For Sasnovich, 32, the site projects 708 points if she gets through and 1,103 if she wins the title.

But Wednesday's main course is another match: Marie Bouzkova against Iga Swiatek. The Czech, No. 25 live with 1,873 points, beat Kamilla Rakhimova 6-4 6-4 and, as the WTA points out, remains unbeaten against her. Now she faces an opponent with 20 titles and 213 wins in the seasons from 2021 to 2025.

Swiatek is No. 9 with 4,389 points and, according to the site's schedule, enters the tournament in the last 16. She arrives off a quarterfinal and a semifinal: in Beijing she lost to Mertens 7-6 6-3, in Wuhan to Chwalinska, 7-5 6-1 in the semifinal. In her last ten matches she has eight wins and two losses.

The freshest precedent is from the 2026 US Open, third round: Swiatek won 7-6 7-6, with both tie-breaks ending 7-3. Anyone looking at the schedule can therefore get ready for long, tight sets, but the Pole has shown she knows how to win them.

Swiatek's season peaked in Toronto, where she won the WTA 1000 and collected 1,000 points, followed by a semifinal in Cincinnati and the last 16 at the US Open. Her best ranking of the year is No. 3 on July 7. In the standings Linda Noskova, No. 8, is 289 points above her and Marta Kostyuk, No. 10, is 469 below.

Bouzkova has put together a solid 2026 without fireworks. Last 16 at Wimbledon and Cincinnati, third round at the US Open, in Beijing (7-6 4-6 7-5 against Qinwen Zheng) and in Wuhan, where she lost to Chwalinska. Her best ranking of the year is No. 21 on July 13, and in her last ten matches she has six wins and four losses.

In the other half of the draw, the name of Alexandra Eala stands out. The Filipina, No. 20 live with 2,296 points, beat Diane Parry 6-3 6-1 and sits two places from her best, No. 18 on August 24. Sorana Cirstea, No. 17 live at 36, eliminated Han Shi 6-3 6-2.

Nationalities tell the story of the tournament too: the five players already in the last 16 come from Belarus, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Philippines and Romania. The five who lost in the third round represented Australia, Belgium, China, France and Uzbekistan: ten different nations in all, in the matches played so far.

The tournament, played on hard courts, began on October 19. So far there have been five main-draw matches, only one decided in a third set (Fernandez's), no tie-breaks, no retirements and no 6-0 sets. The recent roll of honour reads Elena Rybakina in 2025, who beat Ekaterina Alexandrova 3-6 6-0 6-2, and Kasatkina in 2024, who beat Andreeva 6-0 4-6 6-4.

The points on offer show how open the week is: 500 for the title, 325 for the final, 195 for the semifinal, 105 for the quarterfinal, 55 for the last 16. With this edition the 500 points of Rybakina's 2025 title and the 325 of Alexandrova's final expire, along with the 195 of semifinalists Diana Shnaider and Jasmine Paolini.

Today, Tuesday, the remaining third-round matches are still to be played: Paolini against Anhelina Kalinina, Alexandrova against Hanyu Guo, Jelena Ostapenko against Belinda Bencic, Yulia Putintseva against Shnaider. Sara Bejlek v Alycia Parks, Cristina Bucsa v Polina Kudermetova and Katarzyna Kawa v Daria Snigur complete the schedule.

What happens next is easy to say. On Wednesday, October 21, two last-16 matches, Fernandez v Sasnovich and Bouzkova v Swiatek, and then the quarterfinal bracket will begin to take shape. Whether Fernandez finds another comeback, Swiatek confirms the New York precedent or Bouzkova reverses it, we will find out very soon. Better not to change channel at the first tie-break.