‘Title Defended’ Leylah Fernandez awarded Tennis Canada’s Female Player of the Year for 2nd year in a row

The 2021 season keeps improving for Leylah Fernandez as the Canadian youngster gets recognition for an outstanding season. The 19-year old is already one of the flagbearers of Canadian tennis and seems to have settled well on the court after her first full season on the Tour as she played very few tournaments in the 2020 season due to the Pandemic.

This year, Leylah won her first WTA career title as she Viktorija Golubic in the finals of the Monterrey Open in Mexico. At the age of 18, she was the youngest player in the main-draw of the tournament and clinched her first title without dropping a single set throughout the tournament. Post her title in Mexico, she struggled for consistency and failed to go past the 2nd round.

Leylah arrived in New York for the 2021 US Open ranked World No. 73 and played some of the best tennis of her short career as she clinched three Top-5 victories including wins over defending champion Naomi Osaka and World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka on her way to the finals where she lost to fellow teenager Emma Raducanu.

Her performances over the season brought her rewards at the 2021 Excellence Awards ceremony of Tennis Canada where the 19-year old was honoured with the awards of Female Player of the Year, Singles Player of the Year and the Most Improved Player. Leylah was also the Player of the Year in 2020 and has successfully defended her title in 2021.

Leylah Fernandez reached career high rank of World No. 24 in 2021

Along with Leylah, Gabriela Dabrowski was again named as the Doubles Player of the Year while Victoria Mboko was adjudged the Junior Player of the Year for their performances in the 2021 season.

“Our congratulations go to Leylah, Gaby and Victoria on their exceptional 2021 seasons. Despite all the challenges faced due to COVID-19, Canadian players were able to produce spectacular performances that we can all be proud of. Tennis fans around the world will never forget Leylah’s incredible run to the US Open final and her speech after the match showed such maturity beyond her years,” said Michael Downey, President and CEO of Tennis Canada.

Her fantastic run at the US Open also saw Leylah enter the Top-30 of the WTA singles rankings for the first time in her career and finished the season with the rank of World No. 24 at the year-end rankings declared by the WTA.

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