Self-assurance
Leylah Fernandez didn’t exactly have sterling credentials heading into the United States Open. She was just one victory above .500 in 32 matches, first-round exits at the Australian Open and Wimbledon included. Don’t tell that to her, though; for all her seeming lack of experience at 18, she has confidence in abundance. It doesn’t matter who she’s up against; she believes she will win every time she treks to the court. An irrational mind-set? Perhaps not. After all, it’s what led to her first Women’s Tennis Association title at the Monterrey Open last March, and what enabled her to climb to 73rd in the world prior to landing in New York for the last major event of the year.
Fast forward to the aftermath of her third-round set-to at Flushing Meadows, and it’s clear to all and sundry that nothing will keep Fernandez from exuding self-assurance. Not a few quarters will contend that it borders on cockiness. That said, there can be no arguing with the results, the latest of which has her progressing to the Round of 16. And it isn’t simply because she’s still in contention for the hardware; it’s that she upended four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka in the process. Never mind that she found herself down a set and facing match point.
To be sure, Fernandez’s cause was helped in no small measure by Osaka’s shakiness under pressure. Despite breezing through the first set, the latter did not seem sharp at all; to the contrary, flareups that flirted with code violations marked the ultimately failed stint. Meanwhile, she stuck to her plan; as she noted in her post-mortem, “Honestly, I wasn’t focusing on Naomi. I was only focusing on myself.” And “what I needed to do” was precisely what she did, taking the battle to her far more accomplished, if unsteady, opponent and seizing the moment.
It’s fair to argue that Fernandez’s fortitude came from the fact that she had nothing to lose. She was expected to be yet another statistic in Osaka’s redemption arc. Then again, there can be no discounting the bottom line. She prepared well, consistently increasing the pace of her first serves to the forehand side, and then slicing her way through on the other. It’s why she claimed 16 of 17 service games and managed to dictate the tempo of the match. And it’s why she emerged triumphant as the battlesmoke cleared. Opportunity came knocking, and she was only too ready to answer.
ANTHONY L. CUAYCONG has been writing since introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is a consultant on strategic planning, operations and Human Resources management, corporate communications, and business development.