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Canadian sports journalist Crina Mustafa heaped praise on Leylah Fernandez for her role in helping Canada defeat Belgium in the Billie Jean King Cup qualifier to progress to the finals.
Fernandez put her country in the lead against Belgium with a 6-0, 6-3 win over Yanina Wickmayer, before Ysaline Bonaventure defeated Rebecca Marino 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to level the score.
Fernandez then fought hard to defeat Bonaventure 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 to give Canada a 2-1 lead. However, the European side came back into the tie through Greet Minnen's 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Katherine Sebov.
With the outcome of the tie riding on the doubles match, Fernandez partnered with Gabriela Dabrowski to defeat Kirsten Flipkens and Minnen 6-1, 6-2, and secure Canada's spot in November's finals.
Speaking on an episode of the Match Point Canada podcast, Mustafa stated that she noticed a spring in Fernandez's footsteps, even during her training sessions at the Billie Jean King Cup.
“I think so [that this weekend can be a good springboard for her for the rest of the season]. I was watching her practice on the very first day and I gotta tell you, I felt something different watching her. I have a special feeling, she seems like she's really sharp in practice, something feels different,” she said.
“And then she came out and she won that first set 6-0,” she added. “And I was like, ‘okay, this is the Leylah we’re getting this week’. She just looks so sharp, so on top of her game, she seems really confident in her style. I even asked her, ‘I was like, hey, you seem like a very clutch player, you go for those big points all the time.’ She'd served an ace on so many important points this weekend. It was giving me anxiety, I don't know how she doesn't have this anxiety.”
Fernandez hasn't had a bright start to her 2023 season. She has a 11-8 win-loss record on the WTA Tour this year.
Mustafa believes that her BJKC results will give the 20-year-old a much-needed confidence boost to improve her record on the WTA tour.
“Just the level of confidence, maybe because it was a team event as well, maybe that gave her a different kind of push, but I really think that the success from this weekend and the way that she played is going to improve her record I think for the rest of this year,” she opined.
Canadian sports journalist Crina Mustafa admires Leylah Fernandez's ability to thrive in the spotlight
Team Canada made the most of playing the Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers on home soil, as Vancouver played host to their clash with Belgium.
Journalist Crina Mustafa, who witnessed Canada's win in the tie, praised Leylah Fernandez for making the most of the atmosphere and stepping up when the spotlight was on her.
“She plays that crowd a lot too, right? I mean we saw it, obviously, in her 2021 run at the US Open making the finals. She thrives off that type of atmosphere. And even when she's not in Canada, she always seems to shift the crowd in her favor which seems to be like a huge dynamic for her,” she said.
“She loves it,” Mustafa added. “Her and I are about 20 years old. Because we're the same age, I feel like I look to her to see similarities in our mindsets, in the way we deal with things. The one thing that she has that I do not is that confidence when it comes to taking energy from a giant crowd like that and not getting nervous and she's really not afraid of the spotlight. And that's something that I really admire from her.”
