Leylah Fernandez admits learning tough lessons after breaking title drought

Fernandez had endured a tough campaign before the Singapore Open as she started the WTA 500 event with a 16-23 record with her best WTA performances being a couple of quarter-final appearances.

The Grand Slams, in particular, were challenging as she suffered first-round exits at the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon before a third-round defeat at the US Open.

But it all clicked for the Canadian in Singapore as her hard work paid off as she upset top seed and world No 5 Mirra Andreeva in the quarter-final and fifth seed Maja Chwalinksa in the semi-final.

She then defeated unseeded Australian Talia Gibson in straight sets in the final to win her first singles title since October 2025.

Her record now stands at 21-23, but those 23 losses were tough to deal with and the 25-year-old gave a brutally honest answer when asked how she keeps going when the defeats keep racking up.

"I mean, it's tough you know every week the stats show that a tennis player will lose and it's tough sometimes to accept it, and you know, growing up it has never been easy. Fernandez explained after winning her sixth WTA Tour singles title.

"I was actually a crybaby growing up so like every time that I would lose I just didn't like it, I was a sore loser. Even now I'm like a little bit of a sore loser, but that also kind of drives my competitiveness to not forget the losses, but to use it as fuel to keep training and to get back on court.

"Everybody's different; everybody has their own routines. You know, for me is that every loss is a learning lesson, every win is also a learning lesson."

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