{"id":30654,"date":"2025-07-29T00:56:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T00:56:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/30654\/"},"modified":"2025-07-29T00:56:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T00:56:03","slug":"after-tough-start-to-season-leylah-fernandez-rides-momentum-into-national-bank-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/30654\/","title":{"rendered":"After tough start to season, Leylah Fernandez rides momentum into National Bank Open"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Leylah Fernandez kisses the championship trophy after winning a women’s singles championship match against Anna Kalinskaya at the Mubadala Citi DC Open at William H.G. FitzGerald Tennis Center in Washington on Sunday.Scott Taetsch\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Leylah Fernandez won\u2019t sugar-coat it.<\/p>\n

Less than 24 hours after winning the D.C. Open<\/a>, Fernandez offered a blunt assessment of her season before that title run.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rest of the year hasn\u2019t been great,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Before Washington, Fernandez held a 16-17 record and hadn\u2019t won more than two matches at a tournament this year.<\/p>\n

So how did she suddenly rattle off five straight wins \u2013 including gruelling battles against two of the best in tennis<\/a> \u2013 to capture the biggest title of her career?<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old from Laval, Que., highlighted the positive energy around her team and the chance to train with other Canadian players in Washington, helping her gain confidence.<\/p>\n

She also rediscovered her love for the game after a difficult stretch earlier this year, when her mother and sister\u2019s surprise health scares took an emotional toll.<\/p>\n

Leylah Fernandez is riding momentum into her hometown tournament. The 22-year-old from Laval, Que., enters the National Bank Open in Montreal after winning the D.C. Open for her fourth WTA title, and the biggest of her career.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was difficult to manage and disconnect from my emotions,\u201d Fernandez said at a news conference Monday. \u201cBut after Roland-Garros and while preparing for Wimbledon, we talked a lot about maybe training a little less and just finding the joy of tennis, and it helped me a lot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just enjoying myself a lot more and I was able to play well in front of a big crowd. I guess everything just clicked in that week, and hopefully it continues for Montreal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fernandez, who jumped 12 spots to No. 24 in the world Monday, begins her hometown National Bank Open with a first-round match Tuesday against Australia\u2019s Maya Joint \u2013 also her opening opponent in Washington.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a quick turnaround after a whirlwind past 24 hours.<\/p>\n

Fernandez claimed the Washington 500-level title \u2013 her fourth WTA crown \u2013 with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Anna Kalinskaya of Russia in the championship game on Sunday, hurried to the airport after media duties and packing, and landed in Montreal at 2 a.m.<\/p>\n

After \u201cthree or four\u201d hours of sleep, she was at IGA Stadium around 8 a.m. Monday morning for an event with her foundation. Next up on her schedule? Some rest.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much downtime as possible,\u201d she said. \u201cThe most important thing is to stay positive, to have a clear mind and to enter the tennis court with a lot of confidence and a lot of motivation to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlay well, have fun, and put on a good show for the crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2021 U.S. Open finalist had previously won three WTA 250 titles: the Monterrey Open in 2021 and 2022, and the Hong Kong Open in 2023.<\/p>\n

Fernandez certainly put on a show in D.C. by eliminating third seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in a three-hour, 12-minute semifinal match. She also knocked out top seed Jessica Pegula of the United States in the second round.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally tough match. I was up in the third against Leylah, but obviously she\u2019s clearly playing some really good tennis,\u201d said Pegula, the world No. 4, on Sunday. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s really tricky. I played her a couple of times last year and every match honestly felt like it could have gone either way. I was trying not to be too upset about that match.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a departure from the pro athlete\u2019s usual healthy diet, Fernandez found a winning routine of devouring burgers, hotdogs and cheese fries from American fast food chain Shake Shack after each victory.<\/p>\n

She\u2019ll need to find a new recipe for success with this year\u2019s NBO taking place in Montreal. Shake Shack currently has only three Canadian locations \u2013 all in Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re gonna have to find a different type of routine,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s definitely a list of restaurants that we want to go to this week that they don\u2019t have in the U.S., only here in Canada, so that\u2019s definitely on our to-do list.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Leylah Fernandez kisses the championship trophy after winning a women’s singles championship match…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30655,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,593,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-30654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-tennis","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30654\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}