Leylah Fernandez has called out the Canadian Open after claiming that she received ‘a lot of promises’ from the tournament, with regards to scheduling, which were not upheld.
The Canadian fell to Maya Joint, 6-4, 6-1, in her opening Montreal match, looking very low in energy before her home crowd.
Just a few days prior, Fernandez had lifted the WTA 500 title in Washington after defeating the likes of Jessica Pegula and Elena Rybakina along the way, producing some of her career-best tennis.
Less than 48 hours later, the world No 24 was back on court against Joint.
According to the Canadian, she received promises from the tournament that she would play the night session on Tuesday, giving her a few extra hours, which often prove crucial in recovery.
“Oh, yeah, on the short turnaround, I mean, we got promises — oh, man,” Fernandez disclosed.
“It felt great being on court, hearing the fans and feeling their support. It was awesome, and I mean awesome.
“I’m just disappointed with my level of play, and it wasn’t fair for them. I mean, it was a very, very low level.
“But I mean, regarding the short turnaround, I received a lot of promises from the — from scheduling about giving me maybe the night match, and I did not receive that.
“So that kind of hurt me because I was very looking forward to be playing at night, but you know, I guess it’s a little bit political issues at that point.
“But other than that, again, the crowd was just amazing. I heard the emcee kind of cheering me on and also encouraging the crowd even more.
“That kind of warmed my heart. I never had that kind of energy before, and it was just an honour and a lot of fun, yeah.”
Despite the direct comments from Fernandez, Valerie Tetreault – the National Bank Open tournament director – responded by stating that she did try to convince the WTA Tour, who determine the scheduling, to give the world No 24 the night session.
“But I didn’t win my fight,” Tetreault admitted.
“I received the request for her to play in the evening.
“It’s my role to have conversations with the WTA, so I pushed as much as possible for her to have what she wanted.”
The director also added that the Fernandez-Joint match was one of the final few first-round matches, despite both being in a half of the draw which started on Sunday.
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“WTA protocols mean first-round matches need to be completed before second-round matches are played, ensuring fairness to all players,” Tennis Canada added, in an official statement.
“Given Leylah won the title in Washington on Sunday, she was not able to arrive in Montreal until the early hours of Monday morning.
As a result, the WTA made the decision to play her opening match in the latest possible first-round slot.”
Fernandez will return to the tour at the upcoming WTA 1000 tournament in Cincinnati, a tournament where she reached the quarter-finals at last year’s edition (falling to Jessica Pegula in a third-set tiebreak).
The post ‘Hurt’ Leylah Fernandez makes scathing Canadian Open remarks after controversial scheduling decision appeared first on Tennis365.
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