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Never before past the second round in five previous visits to
Indian Wells, Rogers, who turns 29 on Wednesday, gave herself an
early birthday present reaching the last eight where she will
take on Latvian 24th seed Jelena Ostapenko.
"That was an incredible match," said Rogers. "She (Fernandez)
has had such an incredible season and she's such a sweet girl,
I've gotten to know her a little bit.
"It was really about who was dictating the points today, who
could get control of the points first.
"When she gets a good look at a ball it's very tough, her
forehand was incredible today."
After falling to 18-year-old U.S. Open winner Emma Raducanu in
the round of 16 at Flushing Meadows, Rogers was determined not
to be shown the Indian Wells exit by another teenager Fernandez,
who had her own magical run in New York getting to her first
grand slam final.
After a win over ninth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the
third round Fernandez hinted at another fairytale run in the
Southern California desert but it proved a mirage.
The 19-year-old Canadian had been poised for a romp breaking
Rogers to go up 4-1 and then again to close out the opening set.
But Fernandez was unable to carry that momentum into the second
as Rogers took charge breaking the 23rd seed three-times on way
to a 5-0 lead and leveling the contest.
The third set began with the two players trading breaks but
afterwards Fernandez and Rogers would not falter sending the
contest to a tie-break won 7-4 by the American.
(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto. Editing by Shri
Navaratnam)
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