Leylah Annie Fernandez (born 6 September 2002) is a Canadian tennis player. Born to an Ecuadorian father and a Filipino Canadian mother, she currently trains in Florida.[2] She won her first WTA Tour singles title at the 2021 Monterrey Open.[3]
Fernandez has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 69, set on 17 May 2021. She achieved her career-high doubles ranking of 150 on 22 February 2021.
On 21 July 2019, Fernandez won her first professional singles tennis title when she rallied to beat fellow Canadian Carson Branstine in the final of the Gatineau Challenger. Fernandez also won her first professional doubles title on the same date when she teamed with Rebecca Marino of Vancouver. The pair defeated the second-seeded team of Marcela Zacarías of Mexico and Hsu Chieh-yu of Taiwan.[6] The following week, she made her second consecutive ITF final in Granby,[7] losing to Lizette Cabrera of Australia.
Fernandez made her Grand Slam debut at the 2020 Australian Open. After making it through qualifying, she fell in the first round to Lauren Davis.[8] She picked up the biggest win of her career to date the following week in the Fed Cup qualifying round against No. 5 in the world, Belinda Bencic.[9] In late February at the Mexican Open, she made it through qualifying and into her first WTA tournament final, where, after winning twelve sets in a row, she was defeated by world No. 69, Heather Watson. A week later, she upset Grand Slam champion Sloane Stephens to reach the quarterfinals of the Monterrey Open, falling to eventual champion Elina Svitolina.
Fernandez began 2021 unable to string together consecutive wins in her first four tournaments. That changed, however, in March at the Monterrey Open where she won her first four matches to reach the final, and defeated Viktorija Golubic to win the first WTA title of her career. At 18 years old, she was the youngest player in the main draw, and captured the championship without dropping a set the entire tournament.[10][3]
Personal life[]
Fernandez's father Jorge is from Ecuador and is a former soccer player, her younger sister Bianca Jolie is also a tennis player,[5] and her older sister, Jodeci, is a dentist. She is of Ecuadorian and Filipino descent, and is fluent in English, French and Spanish.
Canada
Heather Watson
Viktorija Golubic
Lizette Cabrera
Fernanda Contreras
Hsu Chieh-yu 
Bibiane Schoofs
Robin Anderson 
Jessika Ponchet
Veronika Pepelyaeva 
Clara Tauson
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