The Kazakh-Canadian duo of Anna Danilina and Leylah Fernandez fell in the first round of the WTA-500 tournament in Washington, losing 2:6, 4:6 to the Chinese pair of Tang Qianhui and Xu Yifan, according to the website infohub.kz.
In the first set, Danilina and Fernandez lost their serve in the third and seventh games, both at love. In the second set, they managed two breaks, but their opponents converted one more break. The match lasted 1 hour and 13 minutes; the winners won 57 points to 38 for the losers.
Had they won, Danilina and Fernandez would have faced legendary Venus Williams. The 46-year-old American, partnering with Russian Diana Shnaider, defeated American Quinn Gleason and Norwegian Ulrikke Eikeri 6:3, 6:4 in the first round. Now the Chinese pair will take on the superstar.
Danilina was the only representative of Kazakh tennis at the 2026 Washington Open.
The Washington Open (Mubadala Citi DC Open) began as a men's clay-court tournament in 1969. Since 1986 it has been played on hard courts, and since 2011 it has included a women's event. It is the first and only tournament with a '500' ranking shared by the ATP and WTA. The women's prize money is $1.6 million, with the men's at $2.4 million.
Past champions include Americans Michael Chang, Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, Andy Roddick, Jessica Pegula, and Coco Gauff, as well as Frenchman Yannick Noah, Czech Ivan Lendl, Swede Stefan Edberg, Australian Lleyton Hewitt, and Russians Nadia Petrova and Svetlana Kuznetsova.