Shnaider beats Fernandez in Tokyo final

Canada’s Leylah Fernandez lost the Toray Pan Pacific Open final in Tokyo on Sunday, falling 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 to No. 3 seed Diana Shnaider after a match that lasted two hours and 18 minutes.

The result gave Shnaider her sixth career singles title and her first of the 2026 season, according to a report by the WTA, which also described the victory as her third WTA 500 crown in Tokyo. Sportsnet and ESPN also reported on the final and on Fernandez’s run to it.

Shnaider led 6-4, 4-0 before Fernandez, from Laval, Que., won seven of the next eight games to take the second set 7-5, the WTA said. Fernandez then held serve to open the deciding set and earned three break points on Shnaider’s serve in the next game. Shnaider saved all three to level the set at 1-1.

After a pair of holds, Shnaider broke in the fifth game of the third set and won the last three games to close out the match, the WTA reported.

The win extended Shnaider’s streak to six consecutive WTA finals won. Her only career final loss came in her first championship match, at the 2023 Ningbo Open, against Ons Jabeur, the WTA said. Four of her six titles have come on hard courts. She had lost all four semifinals she reached this year before the Tokyo event.

Fernandez had won the first two meetings between the players, but Shnaider has now won the last four. Sunday’s result was her third win over Fernandez this season, after earlier victories in Adelaide on hard court and Charleston on clay, according to the WTA.

The final was Fernandez’s second in as many weeks. She was runner-up at the Ningbo Open the previous week, the WTA said. Sunday’s loss was only her fifth defeat in her last 21 matches, a stretch that includes her sixth career title in Singapore. Fernandez reached the Tokyo final with a semifinal win over Russia’s Rakhimova, ESPN reported.

“Firstly, I would like to congratulate Leylah on an amazing week, last week, some great achievements through this Asia Swing,” Shnaider said during the on-court presentation. “Congrats to you, your coach, your family back home. Keep going and for sure hope to see you more in the finals like this in the future.”

Shnaider also thanked her coach and her family. “It means definitely a lot, so definitely a great achievement and a great finish to the season,” she said.

The WTA said the title is projected to lift Shnaider back to a career-high No. 11 in the rankings. The report did not give either player’s next event.

Fernandez’s run through Asia has been one of the few bright spots for Canadian women’s tennis this fall. Her Singapore victory in September, covered by Canada News Media, was the sixth title of her career. On the men’s side, Felix Auger-Aliassime retired from his match against Casper Ruud in October with a knee injury.

Related coverage: Fernandez claims 6th WTA title in Singapore and Auger-Aliassime retires vs. Ruud with knee injury.

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Via the WTA, with reporting from Sportsnet and ESPN. Original: WTA.