After victories against four favorites, Quebecer Leylah Fernandez will face a new challenge this Saturday at 4 p.m. She’ll be the player to beat in this US Open final. “It’s a very different dynamic, because not only is it a final, but also Leylah is playing against a girl who came from qualifying,” said coach Sylvain Bruneau.
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Leylah fernandez
Canadian, 19
- Grand Final Slam: 1 (US Open, 2021)
- Career title: 1 (Monterrey, 2021)
- Cut : 5’6 ”
- World ranking : 73e
- Best ranking nowadays : 66e (June 2021)
- Career record: 98-63
- Sheet this season: 17-15
- Career scholarships: $ 786,772
For Sylvain Bruneau of Tennis Canada, one of the keys to victory for Leylah Fernandez lies in his service.
“Leylah will have to serve very well,” points out the former mentor of Bianca Andreescu, who sometimes rubs shoulders with the Quebecer on the circuit. [Emma] Raducanu is very dangerous on the second ball return. “
The Laval player will therefore have to put a lot of first serves on the line if she wants to impose her rhythm.
Bruneau believes that Fernandez will be able to keep up with the pace imposed by her rival. She also has a more varied game, which she will have to use wisely in the final, as she has done in her last matches.
“She is able to use the cushioning, to make very outgoing strikes in forehand as in backhand. It will have to vary the game, so that it is not just a baseline battle, because it would be a more favorable situation for Raducanu ”, estimates the leader of the professionals of the Canadian federation.
Emma Raducanu
Great Britain, 18
- Grand Final Slam: 1 (US Open, 2021)
- Career title: 0
- Cut : 5’7 ”
- World ranking : 150e
- Best ranking nowadays : 150e (August 2021)
- Career record: 64-22
- Sheet this season: 13-6
- Career scholarships: $ 303,376
Like the rest of the tennis world, Sylvain Bruneau is very impressed by the game that the young Briton has been playing since the start of the fortnight.
“Her abandonment on the field, the way she tries herself in her groundstrokes, she passes through everyone with the ball,” he analyzes.
Raducanu is also an excellent athlete with a good sense of anticipation.
“She has flair. But it does not vary greatly, notes Bruneau. She’s a girl who plays pretty fast. She doesn’t play rough, like Aryna Sabalenka. It is more thought out, but it goes all the same very quickly. “
But for both Raducanu and Fernandez, the key will also be the management of the moment. Because a Grand Slam final, recalls Bruneau, “it’s an event in itself”.
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