Leylah Fernandez hopes to turn doubles success into singles resurgence at Wimbledon

Canada's Leylah Fernandez has one clear goal for the rest of the year: raising her singles ranking.

The 20-year-old from Laval, Que., is on a tear in doubles this year, coming off an appearance in the French Open final with American partner Taylor Townsend. But her singles play hasn't met expectations.

Fernandez heads into Wimbledon ranked 95th in the world — far off the No. 51 she entered the French Open with in May, and even further from the career-high No. 13 she held last August.

The left-handed player who stole the hearts of Canadians — and New Yorkers — with her surprise run to the U.S. Open final in 2021 knows her 16-14 singles record needs to improve.

"I just gotta start winning matches," Fernandez said bluntly to The Canadian Press. "It hasn't been the best year. Of course I want better results, I want to win, I want to have my ranking up."

Fernandez opens singles play at the grass-court Grand Slam on Monday against No. 86 Kateryna Baindl of Ukraine. With a victory, she'll likely be up against No. 5 Caroline Garcia in the ensuing round.

Despite her slide in the rankings, Fernandez believes she's moving in the right direction — and she's giving herself time to grow as a player who's still so young in her career.

"It's still a development phase for me, I'm still figuring things out, and I think losing matches is a hard part of the game," said Fernandez.

"I don't think it's going too well, the results speak for themselves," she added. "But every single day in training I've been improving, I've been getting better and that's the most important thing for me."

WATCH | Fernandez eliminated in 2nd round of Bad Homburg Open:

Fernandez credits a large part of her doubles success to her chemistry with Townsend,