In a challenging year, Leylah Fernandez is starting to find balance

Leylah Fernandez captured the biggest title of her life less than two weeks ago, but her season has been anything but easy. Ahead of the Cincinnati Open, where she could play Venus Williams in the second round, she feels a renewed sense of balance.

CINCINNATI -- Despite winning the biggest title of her career in 2025, it's been quite a challenging year for Leylah Fernandez.

The 22-year-old Canadian, who triumphed at the Mubadala Citi DC Open in Washington, D.C. less than two weeks ago, started the year off shaky before capturing her first Hologic WTA 500 trophy.

But the greater challenges have come off the court.

"Mental state’s been a little up and down," the 2021 US Open finalist admitted. "My family and I, we went through a bit of a scare earlier this year, and same with my team. I feel like this year we’ve been challenged a lot off the court."

But ahead of the Cincinnati Open, where Fernandez reached the quarterfinals last year -- and narrowly made the semis, narrowly losing to Jessica Pegula -- she's feeling strong on court, and things are starting to take shape off it.

Being back on North American soil certainly helps.

“Now that we’ve found the balance, things are a lot better," the four-time singles champion said. "We’re enjoying our time. We're very grateful to be here, and now I'm just excited to be playing the North American swing. It's been a while since I've been back in the U.S. and Canada, so it's great to be playing near home."

Fernandez has a bye in the first round, but the draw could get very interesting in a hurry after that. Her second-round opponent will either be Jessica Bouzas Maneiro or seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams, who was given a wild card into the main draw after returning to the tour in Washington, D.C.

It would be Fernandez's first career match against the 45-year-old, and one she would never forget -- in part due to Venus' stature as a transcendent athlete, but also because she feels a kinship with her.

"Oh man, it's going to be an incredible match if it does happen," Fernandez said. "Venus, she's a legend. She's an icon. Growing up, when I first started playing tennis, people asked me, 'Who did you watch when you were growing up?' I always said Justine Henin and the Williams sisters.

"I see a lot of similarities between their family and my family. They kind of built the path for us, and if I do have the opportunity to play against her, I'm just gonna be super happy, a little kid living her dream and playing one of her idols."

It would also be a full circle moment for the World No. 24, who met Williams when she first turned pro and didn't know many players.

It happened at the Top Seed Open outside of Lexington, Kentucky -- which, coincidentally, is only a couple hours away from Cincinnati -- in August 2020. (That tournament will go down in history, as it was the first WTA tournament to be played in America after the COVID-19 shutdown.)

Venus was one of the first players who wanted to practice with Fernandez, who remembers that memory fondly.

"I thought I was going to be very intimidated, but she was super nice and welcoming," Fernandez said. "She encouraged me, so it was pretty cool."

The Shake Shack Tradition Lives On

You might recall that during her run to the D.C. title -- which included wins over Pegula and Elena Rybakina -- Fernandez got in the habit of eating Shake Shack after her victories. It became something of a tradition, part fun and part superstition.

But unfortunately for Fernandez, there weren't any Shake Shacks in her hometown of Montreal, where she lost in the first round to Maya Joint.

There's one in Cincinnati, about 20 minutes away from the Lindner Family Tennis Center.

But come later this month, when she's in New York City for the US Open, she'll be in Shake Shack heaven. There are 17 locations across the five boroughs, including one conveniently located across the street at Citi Field, the home of Major League Baseball's New York Mets.

You can rest assured she'll be enjoying some burgers at the final Slam of the season, especially if she's winning.

"Hopefully there's one near the hotel that's walking distance," she said. (We guarantee there is.) "If not, we're definitely going to drive there and Uber Eats it because we cannot stop that tradition."

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