Every athlete has their own way of refocusing, releasing pressure and starting from a good position during a game. Leylah Annie Fernandez turns to the wall behind and talks to herself.
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It’s the trick she found to banish the negative words that sometimes cross her mind during a meeting.
“When I look at the wall, I try to think of a single word. It can be a word you hear in a song or a funny word like ‘fish’!” she explained to the media after experiencing Wednesday’s three-set win over Beatriz Haddad Maia.
“Just to help me think about something else before I go back to the baseline and focus on my game plan,” she continued.
“When I turn to my opponent, I know I’m ready to fight. As said, it depends on the situation. It can be “fish”, sometimes “belay”, or it can be “one point at a time” or “just look at the ball”. And that can be in three languages!”
Because yes, for those who don’t know, Leylah, who is of Ecuadorian and Filipino descent, is fluent in French, English and Spanish.
A fighter
On Wednesday, Fernandez often faced the wall as she faced a tough Haddad Maia. She had to pull herself together after clearly missing a match point in the second set before coming back strong for the decider.
“In the break between the second and third sets, I managed to calm down. Unfortunately I couldn’t go to the toilet but stayed on the pitch and listened to some good music. I told myself I had to do it step by step. I wanted to stay positive. I’m glad that I was able to have fun on the ground despite this difficult passage.
“In situations like this it’s often easy to throw the racquet down and give up, but I’m glad I could smile and look at my opponent and let him know I was there to fight.”