After her surprise run to the 2021 US Open finals last September, Leylah Fernandez has set new goals for the 2022 season, which include a Top 10 finish.
The Canadian currently sits at World No.19, which matches her career best. After successfully defending her Monterrey title in March, the 19-year old is looking to improve her performance on clay. To achieve this goal, Fernandez has ramped up her yoga sessions, which she claims have improved her movements on the red dirt.
“The difficulty is that clay is very slippery,” Fernandez said. “So all of your muscles, your ligaments get stretched out a lot in contrast to a hard court. So we did a lot of stretching, a lot of yoga so that my groin, the muscles in my legs, can be prepared for what’s coming.”
Furthermore, she stressed the importance of having the proper mindset when playing on clay vs hard courts.
“On a hard court, everything goes faster,” she said. “On a clay court, the balls keep coming back. So you have to hit a few more good shots, a few more winners so that you can win the point. We trained a few hours on clay every day, trying to get used to it.”
With two WTA titles to her name and a career high of World No.19, Fernandez hopes to begin her ascension up the rankings as she aims for a Top 10 finish to the season. She hopes to achieve this using her game and the support of her team.
“Since the US Open, life has changed just a little bit,” Fernandez said. “But I have a great team around me, who are able to manage that side of the business. They let me focus on my profession, because tennis is my No.1 focus.”
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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