“That was my favorite match!” So spoke Leylah Annie Fernandez in front of a jubilant crowd at the IGA stadium, after her spectacular victory on Wednesday. The kind of sentence that we can obviously drop under the influence of emotion, knowing very well that the spectators are waiting for that to roar.
An hour later, she found the media in the conference room, a much less responsive audience. And less numerous, we hear.
But verification made, it was still his favorite match. “Because it was a tough game. Last year, she beat me in Toronto in the second round, so I’m happy to have taken my revenge, recalled the young woman. Playing in front of a full crowd is a privilege. Winning at home, in front of a full stadium, motivates me even more. And it’s been a long time since I’ve won two games in a row, so I’m glad I did it at home. »
Fernandez will long remember that 7-5, 5-7, 6-3 win in the second round of the National Bank Open against 11th-seeded Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia. The spectators too.
The match lasted 2 hours 55 minutes. Might as well say they got their money’s worth. The game was so long that this day session ended around 8 p.m., with the sound of “Olé, olé, olé” that we hear less often in Montreal these days.
A crowd that even charmed Haddad Maia herself, although she did look irritated on the pitch at times. After the match, however, she was a good loser. “It’s a very positive moment. Leylah is young and we were playing in front of an almost full stadium, which means a lot for women’s tennis. It’s special to feel that energy, even though it was against me tonight,” said the Brazilian.
Managing emotions is a challenge for any player. Each tournament, dozens of broken racquets can attest to this.
Fernandez could have broken hers, when she lost a match point in the second set, with a 5-4 lead. She had been perfect so far on her four break points.
From the top of the catwalk, we could see Fernandez’s father, Jorge, pointing towards the low wall behind her. It’s his routine: looking at the wall in order to reset the counter, as it were.
“A lot of things going through my head, a lot of words of encouragement and sometimes negative words,” she described. When I turn back to the wall, I try to think of a single word, a key word. Sometimes it’s a word from a song. Sometimes it’s just a funny word, like “fish”, just so I can think of something else before I go back on the line! I think of one thing, and when I turn to my opponent, I know I’m ready to fight. »
Haddad Maia nevertheless finished the job and won the round, giving Fernandez another chance to pull himself together.
“During the break, I was able to calm down a bit. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go to the bathroom! But the music was good, I wanted to stay positive. »
In the third round, Fernandez did not let his luck slip away. After breaking Haddad Maia’s serve in the eighth game, she offered herself three match points by scoring yet another drop shot. This time, she confirmed her victory at the first opportunity.
Fernandez has won two games in a row, in the main draw of a WTA tournament, for the first time since the Auckland tournament, his very first of the year, in early January. Otherwise, his only bonded gains of the year have been in qualifying and at the ITF tournament in Madrid.
In the next round, the left-hander has an appointment with the American Danielle Collins. This will be the first game of the evening session on Thursday.
Collins is the surprise faller for Greece’s María Sákkari (No. 8) early Wednesday evening. Collins is a 29-year-old player, ranked 48th in the world, who reached No. 7 in the world last year. She went through the qualifications to participate in the Montreal tournament, but has already knocked down two good players in Sákkari and Elena Svitolina this week.
In English, Fernandez described Collins as a tough cookie. A tough opponent or a tough cookie, whichever you prefer.
