Around the grounds: Fernandez's dilemma, Badosa's Bad Bunny fandom & more

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Leylah Fernandez found herself in a small dilemma.

Ahead of the Australian swing on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, Venus Williams had reached out to Fernandez to see if she'd be interested in playing doubles Down Under. The duo had an incredible run at the 2025 US Open to the quarterfinals, so why not run it back?

There was just one problem: Fernandez, the World No. 24, was already committed to playing with Timea Babos. Despite her admiration, she had to turn down Williams’ request.

"It was so hard to say no to Venus because again she has this big sister energy," Fernandez said to press after her 6-2, 6-1 second round win over Polina Kudermetova in Charleston. "I never want to disappoint my siblings, and saying no to them is so hard.

"And when her coach messaged me, I was like, 'oh, no! It's two days too late!' I couldn't do it. But they understood and we still kept in contact. We tried to find the perfect moment to play together."

That perfect moment would be at the Miami Open, where the pair fell in the first round. They had five match points in the 10-point match tiebreak in the defeat. Fernandez had a couple unforced errors at the net during that stretch, but Williams have her some advice that Fernandez keeps today in Charleston.

"I was really heartbroken at the end of the match because I was like really wanted to end the day with a win," said Fernandez, who will next face fellow lefty Diana Shnaider in the third round. "She told me  I played great, just to keep going, keep forward. If we all had a time machine, we would use it, but we don't, so just keep moving forward.

"So with that quote, that definitely helped me to kind of recharge and look at the bright side and just keep working the next day and find ways to improve."

Badosa celebrates with Bad Bunny vibes

Charleston wild card Paula Badosa is capitalizing on the opportunity thus far in the Lowcountry. Defeating Kayla Day 6-4, 6-3 in the first round and No. 10 seed Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-4 in the second, the Spaniard has won consecutive tour-level main draw matches for the first time since June. 

After defeating Day on Tuesday, she gave a little nod to one of her favorite artists, Bad Bunny, in her on-court celebration.

"Today you saw I did like something -- a celebration -- but it was because of a song that I’m listening of him with the team," Badosa said to press Tuesday. "It’s an inside joke, but it’s related to Bad Bunny. It's really cool. It just gives me like good vibes. And before a match it’s very important for me to get in that zone and that mood. Yeah, I think his music is perfect for that."

Badosa said she considers herself one of his original fans, and his music is Badosa's go-to before any match of hers. She'll be in attendance at one of his future tickets, after successfully scoring tickets, Badosa revealed Tuesday. 

"I’m a bit jealous because now everyone is a Bad Bunny fan, but they’re not the real fans," Badosa joked. "I was the real one, like in 2019, 2018, you know, when he started. And I was even saying, 'I love this artist, he’s my favorite artist,' and everyone was like, 'who?' I’m like, 'you’ll see, you’ll see.' So now everyone is a fan."

She'll even be in attendance at one of his future tickets after successfully scoring tickets. The tour's biggest fan of the six-time Grammy award winner had been trying to secure tickets for a while, and finally got it done.

Badosa will face either Sofia Kenin or Bianca Andreescu in the third round.

No drama for Keys

Madison Keys didn't need too much time on her Charleston opener, defeating Donna Vekic in just one hour and 12 minutes.

Except she did have to do a bit of waiting. As the third match on Stadium Court, Keys had to wait for close friend and fellow Player's Box podcast host Jessica Pegula's match to end. Pegula needed three hours and 10 minutes -- the longest win of her career -- to defeat Yulia Putintseva.

 Keys summed it up best during her on-court interview:

"Yeah, I let Jess have the drama for the day, and I felt I would try to keep it a little less drama for me."

Both Americans are now through to the third round, where Keys will face Anna Bondar while her American counterpart Pegula faces No. 14 seed Elisabetta Cocciaretto. For Pegula, she thought her match was quite the fitting way to the begin the clay-court swing on the WTA Tour.

"That was a really crazy match, three-hour match," Pegula laughed to press. "All I kept thinking was like, 'we're into clay court season, like this is really quite the introduction.'"