Leylah Fernandez suffers huge fall in WTA rankings as season woes continue

Former US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez's results since her return from an injury sustained at last year's French Open have been quite poor. The Canadian ended 2022 on a disappointing note and her start to the new season has been average at best.

Fernandez was the two-time defending champion at last week's Monterrey Open. However, she chose not to participate this year. Consequently, she slid by 17 spots to No. 49 in this week's WTA rankings.

The 20-year old has had mixed results since finishing runner-up at the 2021 US Open, where she lost to Great Britain's Emma Raducanu. Although she was able to defend her title in Monterrey last year, it has been a struggle as she fractured her foot in the French Open quarterfinals.

After taking time off to recover, the Quebec native suffered several early round defeats, including a second round loss at last year's US Open. Despite reaching the quarterfinals at Adelaide this year, she fell in the second round of the Australian open and has struggled to maintain any sort of momentum thus far.