After competing in the Tokyo Olympics for Canada, 19-year-old tennis player Leylah Fernandez is off to the US Open semifinals this Thursday. Fernandez’s competitive nature has been her driving force in her journey to the semifinals of the US Open.
Fernandez won the 2019 junior French Open, becoming the first Canadian teenage girl to win a junior Grand Slam since Eugenie Bouchard in 2012, Since then, she’s been one to watch on the tennis court. In the past year alone she’s made the final of the Mexican Open, reached the third round of the French Open, won the Monterrey Open, and competed in the Tokyo Olympics. During the Monterrey Open, Fernandez never dropped a set and beat well-known players Belinda Bencic and Sloane Stephens along the way.
At the US Open, Fernandez has already bested Naomi Osaka, Angelique Kerber, and Elina Svitolina to become the youngest player in the tournament’s history to make it to the semifinals since Maria Sharapova in 2005, and the youngest player to defeat two out of the top five ranked players in the Women’s Tennis Association (Osaka and Svitolina) since Serena Williams achieved the feat in 1999.
Before you watch Fernandez compete in the US Open semifinals, keep reading to find out more about the left-handed tennis player both on and off the tennis court.