Leylah Fernández and Shnaider meet in the Tokyo final

The WTA Tokyo 2026 now knows its two finalists after the semifinal matches held early this morning. Firstly, Leylah Fernandez defeated Kamilla Rakhimova with a score of 7-5, 6-3, and later Diana Shnaider did the same against Mia Pohankova with 6-4 and 7-6, both fulfilling their roles as favorites to face each other for the sixth time in their careers, with a head-to-head record of 3-2 in favor of the Russian player.

Regarding the match between Leylah and Rakhimova, it is worth noting that the Uzbek player entered the main draw as a lucky loser after losing in the qualifying rounds and had defeated players of the caliber of Ekaterina Alexandrova and Maya Joint. Leylah took advantage yesterday of the withdrawal of Elena Rybakina due to a neck injury, and today relied on her experience to win the match and reach her second consecutive final after the one achieved in Ningbo a few days ago.

Shnaider cuts off Pohankova's fairy tale

If Rakhimova's case was admirable, Pohankova's is even more so. The Slovak player, ranked number 144 in the WTA rankings, had been playing at a high level in recent weeks, which allowed her to receive a wildcard for the main draw of the tournament. She was given one at WTA Wuhan a few weeks ago and reached the round of 16, and in Tokyo, she made it to the semifinals after defeating players like Naomi Osaka.

However, today Shnaider was too much for her. The Russian player came back from an initial break in the first set to take the lead, and in the second set, saved a set point in the tiebreak to avoid complicating the match and closed it with a flourish.

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Leylah Fernández y Shnaider se citan en la final de Tokio