Leylah Fernandez has played one Grand Slam final, and she played it before she turned 19. The 2021 US Open final against Emma Raducanu remains the most-watched moment of her career, and for most of the five years since it has been the thing her results are measured against rather than the thing they were built on.
That framing undersells the record. Fernandez has won five tour titles, reached a Roland Garros quarterfinal, won a junior major, helped Canada lift the Billie Jean King Cup and climbed to No. 13 in the world. She has also spent long stretches ranked in the twenties and thirties, and the gap between those two descriptions is the whole argument about her.
Background
Fernandez was born in Montreal on Sept. 6, 2002 and grew up in Laval, Quebec. She stands 5 feet 6 inches, plays left-handed with a two-handed backhand, and has been coached throughout by her father, Jorge, who was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, moved to Montreal at four and played semi-professional soccer in the city before taking up tennis coaching for his daughters with no background in the sport. Her mother, Irene Exevea, is Filipino-Canadian. Her younger sister, Bianca Jolie, also plays professionally, and the two have partnered in doubles on tour. Fernandez trained in Florida as a junior, outside Tennis Canada’s national development program, and is based in Boynton Beach.
The junior results arrived in a single season. She reached the 2019 Australian Open girls’ final, losing to Clara Tauson, then won the girls’ title at Roland Garros four months later, beating the American Emma Navarro 6-3, 6-2 in the final without dropping a set all fortnight. She was the first Canadian to win the French Open girls’ singles title.
The 2021 US Open
Fernandez arrived in New York in 2021 ranked outside the top 70 and unseeded. She turned 19 during the second week. In the third round she beat the defending champion, Naomi Osaka, then the former champion Angelique Kerber, then Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals and Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals. Three of the four were top-five seeds.
She lost the final to Raducanu, a qualifier, in a match between two teenagers that neither the draw nor the seedings had predicted. It is still the only Grand Slam final either the men’s or women’s game has produced between a qualifier and an unseeded player, and it is the reason Fernandez remains a marquee name in New York five years on.
Five Titles and a Career High
All five of her tour singles titles have come on hard courts. She won Monterrey in 2021 for her first, defended it in 2022 by saving five match points in the final against Camila Osorio, and added Hong Kong in 2023. Her best season came in 2025, when she won Osaka and then Washington, the first title of her career above WTA 250 level and the first year she had won more than one.
The career high of No. 13 came in August 2022, weeks after a Roland Garros quarterfinal run that ended against Martina Trevisan and cost her the grass season: she suffered a grade-three stress fracture in her right foot during that match. She reached a first grass final at Eastbourne in 2024. The ranking has not returned to the top 20 since.
Doubles and the Billie Jean King Cup
Fernandez reached No. 17 in doubles in October 2023 without winning a title, a rare combination produced by a run of finals rather than trophies: Roland Garros and Miami with Taylor Townsend and Auckland with Bethanie Mattek-Sands, all in 2023, then Cincinnati in 2024. She played the US Open doubles quarterfinals in 2025 alongside Venus Williams as a wild card pairing. For Canada she won the 2023 Billie Jean King Cup, beating Jasmine Paolini in the final tie.
Playing Style
Fernandez is small by the standards of the modern tour and does not try to out-hit anyone. She absorbs pace, changes direction early and uses the left-handed forehand to open angles that right-handed opponents have to reach across themselves to cover. The serve is a delivery rather than a weapon; she averages low single figures in aces. What she wins on is length, footspeed and a willingness to extend rallies past the point at which the player opposite expects them to end.
That style rewards patience and punishes impatient opponents, which is why her best wins tend to come against big hitters having ordinary days and why her worst weeks look flat rather than dramatic. It also explains a career pattern of beating higher-ranked players in bursts rather than steadily.
Toronto 2026
Seeded 30th at the National Bank Open, Fernandez beat Renata Zarazua 6-2, 6-2 and then produced the biggest win of her season on Aug. 7, beating Mirra Andreeva 6-1, 6-4. Andreeva was the No. 5 seed and the reigning Roland Garros champion. It was Fernandez’s first win over a top-10 opponent in more than a year, and it left her the last Canadian in the singles draw.
Her fourth-round opponent is Osaka, a rematch of the third round in New York in 2021. Fernandez came into the Canadian swing having lost her Washington title defense to Alexandra Eala, a result covered here, and the points from that title are the largest block she has to replace before the US Open.
Season Snapshot — as of Aug. 9, 2026
The figures in this section change during the season. Everything above holds regardless of date.
- WTA singles ranking: No. 34
- Toronto seeding: 30
- 2026 singles titles: 0
- Career singles titles: 5, all on hard courts
- Career-high singles ranking: No. 13 (August 2022)
- Career-high doubles ranking: No. 17 (October 2023)
- Best Grand Slam result: runner-up, 2021 US Open
- Team titles: Billie Jean King Cup, 2023
Frequently Asked Questions
Has Leylah Fernandez won a Grand Slam?
No. She reached the 2021 US Open final at 19 and lost to Emma Raducanu. Her only other major quarterfinal in singles came at Roland Garros in 2022.
What is Leylah Fernandez’s highest ranking?
No. 13, reached in August 2022. In doubles she reached No. 17 in October 2023.
Who coaches Leylah Fernandez?
Her father, Jorge Fernandez, a former semi-professional soccer player who took up coaching for his daughters without a tennis background.
How many titles has Leylah Fernandez won?
Five in singles, all on hard courts: Monterrey in 2021 and 2022, Hong Kong in 2023, and Osaka and Washington in 2025. She has not won a tour-level doubles title.
Where is Leylah Fernandez from?
She is Canadian, born in Montreal and raised in Laval, Quebec. Her father is Ecuadorian-born and her mother is Filipino-Canadian. She is based in Florida.
