Fernandez, Routliffe lose to Kostyuk, Ruse in third round of Roland-Garros

PARIS — Canada's Leylah Fernandez and partner Erin Routliffe of New Zealand have been eliminated from women's doubles competition at the French Open.

The ninth seeds lost their third-round match 6-1, 6-4 to Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk and Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania on Tuesday.

Kostyuk and Ruse took control of the match early, going up 5-0 in the first set after converting two break points.

Fernandez and Routliffe picked up an early break in the second set and led 3-0 before their opponents won the next five games.

Kostyuk and Ruse will face Russian duo Mirra Andreeva and Vera Zvonareva in the quarterfinals.

The loss by Fernandez, of Laval, Que., and Routliffe means there are no Canadians remaining in the singles and doubles draws.

Fernandez and American partner Taylor Townsend advanced to the women's doubles final at Roland Garros last year before losing to Taiwan's Su-Wei Hsieh and China's Xinyu Wang.

Routliffe, who formerly represented Canada, won the U.S. Open title last year in a partnership with Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski.

Dabrowski is missing this year's clay-court season with an injury.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 4, 2024.