"I remember thinking, 'Oh my god, Venus Williams just passed me', it was one of those introductions" - Leylah Fernandez on how she adjusted to the WTA Tour
Leylah Fernandez saw her dream come true as she saw the former World No. 1 in her own eyes at very close range. The Canadian is at the National Bank Open in Toronto, where she'll be making a return to the WTA tour after being on the sidelines since Roland Garros.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference in Toronto, Fernandez spoke about seeing Venus Williams during her first outing at her home event and was awestruck by her.
“Back then I was just in awe seeing all these professionals, I remember one moment, seeing Venus walking past me. I remember thinking, `OMG, Venus Williams just passed me,’ Fernandez said.
The southpaw suffered a grade 3 stress fracture in her right foot during her quarterfinal loss at Roland Garros. Despite being injured, Fernandez continued to play and didn't retire, losing to Italian Martina Trevisan 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-3.
Despite several rumors regarding her comeback, the Monterrey Open winner will be seen in action at the Canadian Open.
“The foot is great, It feels like a brand new foot" - Leylah Fernandez on her foot
Leylah Fernandez spoke about her experience of having an injured foot and how the injury affected her daily routine. With the injury keeping her on the sidelines, Fernandez added that despite being in a "bad moment" due to injury, she was happy to spend her downtime with family.
“The foot is great. It feels like a brand new foot. We’ve just been trying to accept the situation and I think we’ve been doing a great job in understanding that this is a bad moment," she said.
"But at least we’re spending this bad moment as a family and seeing it as kind of a silver lining,” Fernandez added.
“Doctor told me just yesterday that I have the green light to play. My foot is 100% healed.” -@leylahfernandez
Leylah opens her #NBO22 campaign against a qualifier and could meet top seed Iga Świątek in round three https://t.co/ECzHbibFKM
Elaborating on what she did during her downtime, Fernandez said she enjoyed the free time watching TV and reading many books, something she was adamantly against in the past.
“In the past, I was hard-headed and did not want to read books,” she said. “The past few weeks I’ve been reading more and enjoying it -- that was definitely surprising.”
The Canadian also spoke about her love for true crime shows and how she tries to solve the case before the show ends and drew parallels to her problem-solving skills on the court.
“I always try to solve the case before the show ends,” Fernandez said. “Most of the time I’m wrong. Using a thinking process, trying to figure things out, the same way I would use on the on the tennis court, figuring out problems.”
Leylah Fernandez will kick-start her Canadian Open on August 8 against a qualifier. The 13th seed could also potentially face Trevisan in the second round for a rematch of their Roland Garros quarterfinal clash.