'Her heart and belief is much bigger': Leylah Fernandez shares story about love for tennis from childhood after incredible run at DC Open

Canada’s Leylah Fernandez's rise in tennis has left many questions unanswered. Fernandez grabbed headlines when, at the age of just 18, she secured a spot in the final of the US Open in 2021. That match did not go as planned, as she lost to Britain’s Emma Raducanu in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 6-3.

In that competition, Fernandez defeated some big-name players en route to the final, including the current world number one, Aryna Sabalenka, and former world number three Elina Svitolina of Ukraine. Since then, however, not much has gone right for Fernandez. In 14 attempts at the Grand Slams, Fernandez has only managed to secure a spot in the quarterfinals once, which was during the 2022 French Open, where she lost to Italy’s Martina Trevisan.

This year, Fernandez has had a very tough ride, managing to win only 16 out of 33 matches in the singles category at the highest level. However, on Saturday, she arguably produced her best performance and reminded everyone why she managed to play in the final of a Grand Slam at the age of just 18. Fernandez made a remarkable turnaround as she defeated Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina in the semifinal of the DC Open. The 22-year-old eventually came out on top against the one-time Grand Slam winner with a score of 6-7, 7-6, 7-6, in a match that lasted more than three hours.

At one stage, Fernandez was just one game away from being eliminated from the competition, but she showed great resilience and eventually managed to turn it around. She secured a spot in her first final of the 2025 season. Before featuring in the semifinal, Fernandez shared an interesting story in an interview with the WTA official website, where she shared her love for the sport from childhood.

Love for the game

"When I first started playing tennis, there was like a mini camp and they were doing a physical test, kind of a straight-line sprint," said Fernandez. "I was probably the slowest out of all of the girls there. The coaches were concerned, like 'She's not very good physically.' They talked to my parents, and my parents said, 'Yeah, but if you put a tennis ball in front of her and you ask her to run for every ball, she's gonna do it. Her heart and her belief in herself is much bigger than most of the girls in that camp.'"

Talking after her win, Fernandez stated that she believes in following the process and that the results will come eventually. "We're doing things right," said Fernandez. "The results are going to come. [I'll] keep enjoying it, and to not focus too much on results but focus on how my game is improving."

Next up for Fernandez will be Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, who secured her spot in the grand final after beating Britain’s Emma Raducanu in straight sets with a score of 6-4, 6-3. This will be the second meeting between the two players in professional tennis and the first since 2021. In the previous meeting, which was in the round of 32 of a WTA event in Mexico, it was Fernandez who came out on top with a score of 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. Despite that, Kalinskaya will be going into the competition with a lot of confidence,e and she revealed her game plan, which was to be aggressive from the get-go.

"I always like to be aggressive," said Kalinskaya after beating Raducanu. "I like that style of the game. Yeah, I guess the fast court fits me very well, but you need to be fast at making decisions. It's also very challenging. But I guess when I serve good, return fast, that's what I like the most, and to try to be aggressive as much as I can, and the fast court helps."