At 5'5", Leylah Fernandez stood tall through late-season surge

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Leylah Fernandez in 2025, by the numbers

• W/L: 34-25
• GS record, 5-4:
• Australian Open 3R
• Roland Garros 2R
• Wimbledon, 2R
• US Open, 3R
• Titles: 2
• Finals: 2
• Year-end Ranking: 22

Why she may have been overlooked in 2025

It’s always been easy to overlook Leylah Fernandez. For beginners, she stands just 5-foot-5 . As a youth, she was dropped from a Canadian national junior development program in her home province of Québec because she was, to use her father/coach Jorge’s word, “tiny.” She also was overshadowed in her finest moment: that loss in the 2021 US Open final to fellow first-time major finalist, Emma Raducanu.

But Fernandez, now 23, has managed to survive in a game increasingly dominated by bigger, more powerful players. It all takes a toll, which may help explain why her career has been one of struggles interspersed with flashes of brilliance. She played an aggressive schedule this year, keeping her ranking up in Top 20 territory—and those ranked above her on their toes.

However, between Indian Wells and the end of Roland Garros, Fernandez went just 3-7. That stretch included a lower-tier WTA 125 event in which Fernandez won a match over the 348th-ranked player, then lost to one ranked outside the Top 100, Alikasandra Sasnovich.

The skid ended on the grass in mid-June in Nottingham, where she won back-to-back matches for the first time since February. While she won only two more matches on grass, the brilliance soon flashed again: in Washington, DC, a WTA 500 event, Fernandez ripped off five consecutive wins—including upsets of top seed Jessica Pegula and No. 3 seed Elena Rybkina—to claim the title. It was a performance that absolutely nobody saw coming.

Why she may be one to watch in 2026

Let’s be frank. Based on Fernandez’s record since that magical 2021, it’s difficult to predict a comparable Grand Slam breakthrough. She has yet to match her career-high ranking of No. 13 (August 2022), but she remained in the thick of things largely because she is resourceful, tough, and prone to bouts of inspiration—and therefore dangerous.

Fernandez is a wily player, the kind that can give fits to more straightforward ball strikers. Her game is built on a combination of excellent mobility and a willingness to play from up close to or on the baseline. She’s an excellent retriever with a surprisingly powerful forehand. She also uses the sliced backhand effectively, either to mix up the pace or to pull an opponent off the court.

The serve, particularly the second delivery, has been her chief weakness. But given her age, and the natural advantage enjoyed by left-handers, developing a better if not necessarily bigger serve could go far in protecting Fernandez from power returners. And skills aside, grit and stamina should continue to win her matches.

Although her week-to-week inconsistency suggests that she might benefit from taking a little more time off, Fernandez seems to be one of those players, like Taylor Fritz, who likes to be out there competing. In Washington, in the midst of that patch of poor form, she admitted that she contemplated taking a long-ish break from tennis. Instead, she doubled down and won the biggest of her five main tour titles. Fernandez has often punched above her weight class and surprised people. There’s no reason to think she won’t continue to do so.