Leylah Annie Fernandez

Biography

Leylah Annie Fernandez made her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, reaching the second round of women’s singles.

In 2023 she led Canada to a historic win at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals for Canada’s first ever major women’s international team tennis title. She was named the Heart Award recipient as the Finals MVP after winning  her singles and doubles matches in the semifinal and her title-clinching singles match over Italy’s Jasmine Paolini. She also earned the Heart Award during the spring Qualifiers, after winning two singles matches and the clinching doubles match with Gaby Dabrowski, making her just the second woman ever to receive the award twice in one season.

Fernandez advanced to her first Grand Slam singles final at the 2021 U.S. Open. Earlier in the year, Fernandez had won her first WTA title. She was the youngest player at the Monterrey Open and didn’t drop a set the entire tournament. In that year’s Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers, she won both of her singles matches as Canada beat Serbia to get into the next year’s Qualifiers, which earned her a first Heart Award. At the end of 2021, she earned the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as Canadian Pess Female Athlete of the Year. 

In 2022, Fernandez repeated as the Monterrey Open champion but then missed the grass court season with a stress fracture in her right foot. She still managed to achieve her career-high WTA ranking of No. 13 on August 8 2022. 

Fernandez added a third career WTA singles title in 2023, winning at the Hong Kong Open. She reached the women’s doubles final at the 2023 French Open with American partner Taylor Townsend. Fernandez competed in her first Billie Jean King Cup (then Fed Cup) in 2019 during Canada’s World Group I Playoff loss to the Czech Republic. She got her first win for Canada in February 2020, beating Swiss star Belinda Bencic during the Billie Jean King Cup Qualifying Round. That was also her first career victory over a top-10 player. In 2022, she won two singles matches to help Canada win their Qualifier 4-0 over Latvia and advance to the Billie Jean King Cup Finals Group Stage.  

Fernandez made her first WTA main draw appearance in 2018, defeating fellow Canadian Dabrowski in her opening match at the Tournoi de Quebec (WTA 250). She earned her first pro titles in 2019 when she won the singles and doubles events at the ITF Gatineau. That year she also made her main draw debut in a WTA 1000 tournament, falling in the first round of the Canadian Open. 

Fernandez became a full-time player on the WTA Tour in 2020. She advanced through qualifying to reach her first Grand Slam main draw at the 2020 Australian Open. That February, she reached her first career WTA final at a 250 event in Acapulco, winning 12 straight sets before falling to Great Britain’s Heather Watson.      

As a junior, Fernandez became the youngest Canadian to qualify for and win main draw rounds on the 25K ITF Circuit. She had her breakout year in 2019, starting her season with a run to the final of the Junior Australian Open. She won the Junior French Open title after having fallen in the semis at Roland Garros the year before, making her the first Canadian woman to win a junior Grand Slam since 2012. She reached number one in the junior world rankings on September 2, 2019.

A Little More About Leylah

Getting into the Sport: Started playing tennis at age 5 and began competing at age 10… Outside Interests: Enjoys watching mystery movies and reading mystery novels… Studied business administration through the WTA partnership with Indiana University… Loves to solve puzzles and Rubiks Cubes during rain delays or in her free time at the hotel… Odds and Ends: Favourite motto: “It’s better to burn out than to fade away” -Neil Young… Inspired by Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal for their competitiveness and elegance on the court…