Leylah Fernandez turned down Australian Open doubles with Venus Williams

CHARLESTON—There has to be a ton of pressure that one must feel when Venus Williams calls and asks you to play doubles.

But Leylah Fernandez can tell you that pressure doesn’t compare to the disappointment of having to turn down the former world No. 1 and 14-time Grand Slam doubles champion, something the Canadian confessed to doing ahead of this year’s Australian Open.

Fernandez and Williams first teamed up at the 2025 US Open, and though they finally reunited at the Miami Open last week, the Credit One Charleston Open’s No. 9 seed revealed they could have paired up sooner had Williams reached out a few days earlier:

Q. And I just wanted to ask about the experience of playing doubles with Venus again, Miami, hadn't played together since the US Open, how that came together again and what it was like to be back on the court with her?

LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: Yeah. With Venus we kind of kept in contact after the US Open. We were hoping to play -- well, she asked me to play in Australia, but unfortunately I was already committed with Timea [Babos], so that was it. And then I did ask if she was going to the Middle East, but she wasn't.

So, we were kind of figuring out the perfect time to play together, and Indian Wells and Miami was the two tournaments where we could play, and unfortunately, Indian Wells didn't happen, but there was Miami Open, and it was a lot of fun. She's a great mentor. I mean, in the last tiebreak, the third set tiebreaker, we were up and we lost it, and I remember I had like a couple of easy shots, easy volleys, and I missed, and I was really heartbroken at the end of the match because I was like really wanted to end the day with a win. And she told me, you know, like I played great, just to keep going, keep forward. If we all had a time machine, we would use it, but we don't, so just keep moving forward.

So with that quote, that definitely helped me to kind of recharge and look at the bright side and just keep working the next day and find ways to improve.

Q. I know Timea was a great doubles player, but how tough was it to say no to Venus Williams, though?

LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: Yeah. There's no disrespect to Timea. She's an amazing doubles player. She's had an amazing career. But it was so hard to say no to Venus because, again, she has like that big sister energy. I never want to disappoint my siblings, and saying no to them is so hard. And when her coach messaged me, I was like, oh, no! It's two days too late! I couldn't do it. But they understood and, again, we still kept in contact. We tried to find the perfect moment to play together.

Fernandez played doubles this week with Kristina Mladenovic but has found more success in singles, winning her opening round over Polina Kudermetova in straight sets to book a Round of 16 clash with No. 7 seed Diana Shnaider.