Leylah Fernandez’s struggles on show in Miami but she has grit to rise again

W ithin a few games of Leylah Fernandez’s second-round match against Belinda Bencic at the Miami Open on Friday, defeat already seemed inevitable. As Bencic squeezed up to the baseline, suffocating the young Canadian with her early ball-striking and sharp redirections, Fernandez could not keep up. She tried to hold her own position inside the baseline, but was easily pushed back. When she assumed more risk, forcing the ball closer to the lines, her errors piled up. After 67 minutes, the 20-year-old was thoroughly beaten 6-1, 6-1.

Eighteen months on from her unforgettable run to the 2021 US Open final, Fernandez faces plenty of her own struggles as she tries to follow up her breakout performance. In New York, she showed off the full breadth of her talent. Despite standing 5ft 6in, she smote opponents with the combined force of her vicious lefty forehand, unfailingly aggressive returning, movement that allowed her to quickly flip defence to attack and her crafty resourcefulness.

While Emma Raducanu came through qualifying and marched through a draw full of opportunity in New York, eviscerating all in her path without dropping a set, Fernandez had a starkly different experience. Already an established top-100 player, she was handed a brutal series of opponents, including three top-five players. She demonstrated her fighting spirit, and won the crowd over in the process, surviving four brutal three-set matches in a row to reach her first grand slam final.

The immediate aftermath was not easy. She won a hard-fought second career title in Monterrey last year, but she also lost in the first round of the Australian Open and her numerous early losses meant she struggled to gain any real rhythm. She has learned the same lessons