The third-seeded and 40th player in the world needed just 46 minutes to defeat Austria’s Julia Grabher, 82nd in the WTA rankings, in straight sets 6-0, 6-1.
Along the way, Fernandez has scored on more than 8.5% of her first serves and broke her rival’s 5 times on 10 occasions.
Grabher was actually limited to a measly 20 points in this one-sided encounter.
In the Square of Aces, Fernandez has a date with Ysaline Bonaventure, 95th in the WTA. The Belgian finished the run of the Canadian Rebecca Marino (No. 8) with a victory in the second round duel in three sets with 3: 6, 6: 3 and 6: 3.
Marino, 63rd in the ATP rankings, finished the match with 16 aces, three double faults and a 71% first serve success rate.
However, the British Columbia athlete only won nine points from 25 on his second serves and suffered four breaks. Two of those breaks came in the deciding set in the first and ninth games.
In the other main games of the day, American Coco Gauff defeated her compatriot Sofia Kenin 6:4, 6:4 and in a second round meets Chinese Zhu Lin, Venus Williams 3:6, 6:2 and 7:5 defeated still disturbed by the rain.
Britain’s Emma Raducanu was eliminated by Slovakia’s Viktoria Kuzmova after suffering an ankle injury.
The master United States will open in 2021 won the first set easily 6-0 before losing the second (7-5) when she injured herself. She tried to resume the game but had to throw in the towel crying.
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