‘She’s a great student of the game,’ Leylah Fernandez’s father and coach reveals her success mantra
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Leylah Annie Fernandez
Canadian teen sensation Leylah Fernandez has impressed everyone with her mental strength at the 2021 US Open despite being a teenager. The 19-year old has bounced back from some extreme circumstances against experienced and higher ranked opponents.
She has beaten the likes of defending champion Naomi Osaka, 2016 champion and former world no.1 Angelique Kerber, world no.5 Elina Svitolina and second set Aryna Sabalenka en route the final and interestingly, all the matches went down the distance. She has spent more than 12 hours on court and has shown tremendous fighting spirit.
Her father and coach, Jorge Fernandez. who is coaching her from Canada, revealed Leylah’s mindset and said that watching tennis has helped her a lot.
“I’ve always described Leylah as having an extremely mature game. It’s something that you expect out of a 28yo, not out of a 16yo, 15yo. I watched her win the U16 Nationals when she was 12… I think that poise has come from her watching a lot of tennis…” he said.
‘Although she[Leylah] hasn’t lived it, she has watched it’: Jorge Fernandez
Jorge also said that Leylah constantly analyzes her game and is a great student of the game. “She’s constantly analyzing what happened at this time, what happened when this happened. She’s a great student of the game. That brings that poise that we see in her. Although she hasn’t lived it, she has watched it.”
On court, Leylah will take on fellow teenager Emma Raducanu in the US Open final. This will be the biggest match of their careers. While Leylah has been the most fierce player this tournament, Emma has been the most dominant player this fortnight and is yet to drop a set. Whoever wins, history will be created in New York City on September 11.
Also read: ‘There’s no sign that Novak Djokovic will collapse at the final hurdle,’ feels John McEnroe
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Lakshya Chopra
(2648 Articles Published)