Danielle Collins said Leylah Fernandez has “so many wonderful qualities” moments after beating the Canadian tennis star in Montreal. On Thursday night, USA’s Collins ousted home favorite Fernandez 6-2 6-3 in the Montreal round-of-16. Since Fernandez was the last Canadian player standing in Montreal, the host country was left without a chance of having a local champion at this year’s tournament. After easily beating Fernandez, Collins spoke highly of the 20-year-old Canadian who made the US Open final two years ago.Ā
āLeylah is such a great representative of this country. She displays what Canadians are about. Kindness, hard work, so many wonderful qualities. Hopefully Iāll have more people at some point. But weāre all just grateful play in full stadiums,” Collins said of Fernandez.Ā
Collins got the job done against Fernandez in two sets
After missing out on two consecutive break points in the second game, Collins earned the first break of the match in the fourth game to open a 3-1 lead. In the eighth game – when Fernandez was serving to stay in the first set – Collins earned her second break to seal the opener. In the second set, there were no breaks until the eighth game when Collins broke Fernandez for a 5-3 lead. In the ninth game, Collins served out for the match. After the match, Collins gave credit to her new coach Jared Jacobs.
“For so much of my career, I traveled by myself without a coach, and I had a little bit of success doing that, but I think it’s been huge having Jared a part of my team and being there for me and helping me evolve my game and evolve mentally. I feel like all of the things that he’s been bringing to the table and holding me accountable for is really helping me get some better results on the court,” Collins said of her new coach.