Like many young people in her sport, the tennis player Leyla Fernandez he wants to follow in the footsteps of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, two of the greatest exponents in this discipline, but also those of Pep Guardiola, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The Canadian is a fan of soccer and in addition to following him for the passion or the results, she carefully observes his figures: their creativity, uniqueness, the use they make of angles, speed, aggressive defenses and the fluidity of their movements, as explained in an interview for the International Tennis Federation (ITF). Tutored by her father and her coach, Jorge, Leylah tries to take the attributes of the best athletes in other sports and adapt them to her own.
“I really like coach Pep Guardiola because of his philosophy, his way of training and playing football, it’s very interesting. I also really like Federer, how he plays the ball early, but he doesn’t get desperate with his shots. Afterwards, I love Rafael Nadal, how he fights every point as if it were the last; and I like the work ethic of footballers like Ronaldo, Messi, also how he plays Neymar with the ball, Mbappé. I love soccer and I always try to connect the tactics of soccer players to tennis, they are my inspiration,” Fernández shared with El Economista.
At 19 years old, Leylah has become number 19 in the world, a position she held for three weeks from February 7 to 27 of this year; she also owns a WTA title (from the Monterrey Open) and last year she was a finalist in the US Open, one of the four Grand Slams on the calendar. Her father believed that those achievements would come at a more mature age, when Leylah was 23 or 24 years old, but he considers that her intelligence to play tennis, defined by him as Tennis IQ, and the knowledge of her potential have taken her to where is it located.
“Leylah plays tennis that we have seen 20 or 30 years ago, a Tennis IQ. It’s not about winning with power, but with a little more intelligence, patience, a little more elegant tennis. He is taking responsibility for that talent, he believes it and now he is executing it. We spend a lot of time teaching players to play with power and we forget that there is also another style that we can maximize,” Jorge Fernández told Channel 6, after the Canadian made it through the first round at the Monterrey Open this year.
The champion of the 2021 edition considers that on the court one of her tactical virtues is to have “the luck of being left-handed”, because for the side that plays, she can “open the field more easily”.
“But from a young age my dad taught me a very specific game for my body type, to hit the ball early, to be fast and not to rush my shots. Also to have fun on the field. If I fail, these are things that happen, I have to play the next point with the same intensity and intention”.
To work on that tactical intelligence, Leylah watch the videos of his games “to get to know me as an athlete” and recognize what he can do better, as well as his mistakes.
“When I enter the tennis court I always try to see those gaps, those game patterns that I did wrong and I try not to repeat them and correct them in training.”
And she concentrates on herself and on playing the tennis that her father taught her, she doesn’t like to spend a lot of time analyzing her rival, “I only pay attention to what I have to do, to have confidence in myself, in important moments ”.
Rodrigo Camacho, sports journalist in multimediaexplained that among Leylah’s virtues is his ability to vary the effects of his shot, his heights and the amount of resources he uses in his game.
In addition, “she is a player who needs to grow a lot, but at least in her intentions it is clear that she has a plan to counteract the limitations she still has. Leylah suddenly doesn’t bet on always looking for a winning shot, but rather she has more patience, she likes to get into the rally and she feels comfortable doing that regardless of the opponent she faces”, said Camacho.
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