Leylah Fernandez might be the more successful of her tennis-playing siblings, but last night, she gave all the credit to her sister.
Fernandez spoke to the media on Thursday night in Toronto about playing tennis alongside her sister Bianca at this year’s National Bank Open, the lone Canadian tour stop.
With Leylah eliminated from the singles draw against Ashlyn Krueger earlier in the day, the Fernandez duo had to face off against Krueger and Catherine Harrison just hours later in doubles. And while Leylah admitted she was still shaken by the singles loss, she had plenty of praise for Bianca’s performance en route to a 6-3, 4-6, 11-9 win to move onto the quarterfinals.
“The reality was that my sister was the boss on the court in doubles. My dad gave her the green light to take over, and, you know, she, credit to her, she did an amazing job in snapping me out of my little rut,” Leylah told the media.
“I was very disappointed with my singles loss, and to get back on court, it was extremely hard for me. She did some amazing points. She pumped us up. On some important points, she looked at me, and she gave me full confidence that I was going to do my part of the job. That helped me to kind of calm down, calm down those emotions.”
The 21-year-old Leylah aims to top the WTA rankings, currently sitting 25th in the singles list. A 2021 US Open finalist before falling to Emma Raducanu, Fernandez aims to top her career-high 13th-best ranking achieved in 2022. The 20-year-old Bianca, meanwhile, competes mostly in the NCAA for UCLA and is currently outside of the top 1000 in her singles ranking.
Following their doubles win, Bianca embraced Leylah as the pair came together for a post-match hug. But when asked what the words the two exchanged were, the elder Fernandez declined to comment.
“You know, I would like to keep that a secret because, for me, that was a special moment
that I want to keep between us,” Leylah added. “I had a very tough day, so when I saw the way that she carried us in doubles, that made me proud. I think she was the one that was MVP of the match. She gave me strength, and she won the match for us.”
The pair will play together on Saturday, finding out their quarterfinal opponent later today.
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