Leylah

On any other day, Townsend, playing at her home major, would have been the crowd favourite.

On Sunday, the Louis Armstrong Stadium rode every high and low as she spurned eight match points before losing to Barbora Krejcikova in three sets to exit the women’s singles in the last 16.

But on the same stage in the doubles, she was playing against a partisan crowd.

Williams is, after all, a four-time champion at Flushing Meadows across the formats, winning back-to-back singles titles in 2000 and 2001 and earning two doubles titles alongside sister Serena in 1999 and 2009.

Across her career, she has fought back from wrist and back injuries as well as being diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, an autoimmune disease that causes fatigue.

This was her first appearance in the last eight of a Grand Slam since reaching the semi-finals in the singles in New York in 2017 and her first doubles quarter-final since winning Wimbledon in 2016.

But despite the raucous reception as she walked on to court, the match was one-way traffic.

The top seeds were relentless, winning 12 of the first13 points to race into a 3-0 lead.

Their success was met with polite, if muted, applause and it was not until the fourth game, when Williams rolled back the years with a bruising forehand winner off Siniakova’s serve, that the crowd erupted into life.

Williams later held her second service game to 15 but Townsend and Siniakova, who only dropped six points on serve throughout the match, had one foot in the last four after 22 minutes.

The second set proved more competitive, with Williams and Fernandez both holding their serves, but with their opponents sending down 12 winners and just two unforced errors, they could not get a foothold in the match.

Townsend and Czech Siniakova, who have yet to drop a set, will face fourth seeds Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens for a place in the final.

Elsewhere on Tuesday, Britain’s Joe Salisbury and Neal Skupski – the sixth seeds – fought back from a set down to reach the third round of the men’s doubles with a 4-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 win over Monaco’s Hugo Nys and Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin.

However, Briton Marcus Willis was knocked out as he and Karol Drzewiecki of Poland fell to 4-6 6-3 6-1 defeat by Czech pair Tomas Machac and Matej Vocel.

Williams, a seven-time singles and 14-time women’s doubles Grand Slam champion, is playing her 25th US Open.

She won the first of her two women’s doubles titles in New York with younger sister Serena in 1999, three years before Fernandez was born.

Addressing Williams in her on-court interview, former US Open singles runner-up Fernandez said: “Seeing you play on court with the same big smile you had back then is so inspirational and motivates me to keep going. I love that you love tennis.”

It is the first time that Williams has reached the quarter-finals of a major since winning the Wimbledon title, also alongside Serena, in 2016.

Asked if she had a message for her younger sibling, Williams joked: “She’s so happy for Leylah and I, she’s given us advice and we just need her in the box, so my message is ‘Serena, you need to show up!'”

Their quarter-final opponents could be top seeds Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend, whose third-round match had not begun when Williams and Fernandez left the court having signed autographs for many of their waiting supporters.

For Alexandrova, it was the second defeat of the day on Louis Armstrong Stadium, having earlier been knocked out of the singles by Iga Swiatek on the same court.

Earlier this season, former world number one Williams was officially considered an inactive player, having gone a whole year without competing.

Then, out of nowhere as the eyes of the tennis world were trained on Wimbledon, she announced she was ready to play again at the Washington Open.

Williams beat 35th-ranked Peyton Stearns on her comeback in Washington, whetting her appetite for more competitive action.

Despite an opening defeat in Cincinnati, Williams received a wildcard for the US Open singles, in which she is also a two-time champion.

After her 6-3 2-6 6-1 defeat by Muchova, she cast an emotional figure as she reflected on how she has battled back from serious health issues to push the world’s best players to their limit – against the odds.

In 2011, Williams was diagnosed with Sjogren’s syndrome, an incurable autoimmune disease with symptoms including pain, numbness and fatigue.

Last month, she revealed how she had also been affected by the severity of painful fibroids – abnormal growths that develop in the uterus.

Fernandez, 22, is seeded 31st in the women’s singles in New York and beat compatriot Rebecca Marino 6-2 6-1 in the first round.

She reached the singles final in 2021, where she finished runner-up to Britain’s Emma Raducanu.