Everything we know about Leylah Annie Fernández’s parents

Leylah Annie Fernandez’s mother, Irene Exevea, cheered in the stands after Annie defeated Elina Svitolina to advance to the US Open semifinals. Fernández achieved her victory one day after her 19th birthday. Leylah has been unlucky on her way to the semifinals: she delivered thrilling comebacks to defeat Naomi Osaka and Angelique Kerber to book her date with Elina Svitolina.

Annie revealed after the match that two pieces of advice from her father inspired her historic victory. “Today is your first quarterfinal. Don’t do it to the last, ”Jorge Fernández told his daughter by phone. “Fight for your dreams.”

Jorge Fernández became Leylah’s tennis coach after being kicked out of a provincial development program

Leylah Annie Fernández was born on September 6, 2002 in Montreal, Canada, to Jorge Fernández and Irene Exevea. Jorge is Ecuadorian and Irene is Filipino-Canadian. They have raised three daughters: Jodeci, Leylah and Bianca.

Jorge was a professional soccer player in Ecuador who signed his first professional contract at the age of 13. Therefore, he supported Leylah’s passion for tennis when she demonstrated it at the age of five. He had participated and succeeded in soccer and athletics, but tennis had priority.

“It’s the beauty of it,” Leylah said to CBC about his attraction to tennis. “Every time I watched tennis on TV, it was so beautiful,” Annie said. At age 7, Leylah enrolled in a provincial development program that partnered with the national program.

However, the show eliminated Leylah: she was too slow, had faulty technique and was unable to improve her serve, they said. Fortunately, the disappointment didn’t dampen Annie’s enthusiasm for tennis. George said CBC:

“She was crying and I was looking at this girl, ‘Honey, is this really important to you?’ She said yes and that she wanted to play. I said, ‘If you want, I’ll train you.’

Jorge had gained his limited knowledge of tennis from watching Leylah train with developmental coaches. He had identified the training techniques that benefited Leylah.

She also learned that perhaps the greatest players of all time, Serena Williams and Steffi Graf, were coached by their parents. Fernandez knew it would be a challenge, but he enjoyed trying to make Leylah mentally unbreakable. Jorge spoke with CBC about his approach:

“In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. I had an eye and I said, okay, since my children and my wife don’t know more, they won’t criticize me much. I decided that we are going to focus a lot on fitness, mental strength and speed. Lots of precision tennis and every once in a while a knockout.”

Other trainers questioned Jorge’s techniques, but he stuck to them.

Jorge adopted a reward and punishment training technique that puzzled other coaches: Leylah would receive a reward for scoring a goal and face a penalty for missing. Fernández rarely referred to Annie’s successes, as she constantly set higher goals for her daughter.

“You have to be on the red line all the time, and then you find a new red line,” Jorge said. “You have to be there until the red zone becomes a normal zone. You have mental strength and what you thought you couldn’t do, you now do regularly.

The frowns from other coaches did not deter Jorge. Leylah broke down in tears during a few sessions and, from his experience as a young footballer, he knew when he needed a supporting arm around his shoulder. leylah told him CBC who understood his father’s techniques:

“He just wants me to get better, keep correcting, keep competing. He said that’s going to happen a lot, that he’s going to put me in awkward positions during practice and it’s up to me to fight and find solutions.”

Jorge wanted to make sure that Leylah would never shrink from the size of her opponent. Due to her small size, most of her opponents would be taller than her. Therefore, Jorge set out to impress on Leylah that the size of the opponent did not matter.

He went as far as pitting Leylah against one of her six foot four inch friends. Jorge’s training methods taught Leylah to focus on the ball instead of the opponent. she talked to tennis seniors on the value of his father’s intense training:

“I am a hard worker. There is no secret to playing tennis, you have to work hard every day. I am glad that my parents have taught me the value of working hard from a very young age, that no matter what happens I did it yesterday because today is a new day and a new opportunity to do better”.

Jorge allows Leylah to make her decisions and little by little he detaches himself from her.

Jorge was and still is Leylah’s coach, but he leaves crucial decision making to her. If she had wanted to quit tennis, Jorge would have supported her decision. “Tennis is not the only thing in life that will make you happy, but, for me, I kept improving, kept my head down and kept working,” she said.

Fernández built Leylah’s strength and mental toughness, but recognized that there were aspects of the training beyond her experience. To make Annie a complete tennis champion, Jorge hired professional tennis coaches. Coach Romain Deridder spoke with CBC about his collaboration with Jorge:

“Jorge and I have a very good relationship on and off the field. I think we complement each other well. Obviously, he’s been on the court with her all his life, so when we started I wanted to learn as much from him as possible and I still do, so that I can fit into the team and understand what I can bring to the table and how. approach Leylah. ”

Following Leylah’s remarkable rise to pro, Jorge has become more of an advisor than a coach. leylah told him CBC that Jorge offers him advice and gives him space to make independent decisions:

“I have my opinions, my decisions, he wants me to be independent, so he teaches me all these things, but he lets me open up, be a strong and independent woman and live with my decisions, whether they are bad or bad. deal with the consequences.”

Jorge is still Leylah’s coach, but parted ways with her professionally to allow tennis coaches to work their magic. He acknowledges that Leylah’s game has enormous potential for improvement and that he might not be the best person to guide her development. leylah said:

“He sees weakness as an opportunity to improve and become his best weapon. He will always admit his faults, he will always say: ‘I’m not good at this, but I can bring someone to guide you and teach you at the same time, so when the time comes and we need to go a different way. … he will still know what to do. tell me what to teach me, and we will continue working together”.

Leylah’s mother and sister provide the perfect tonic for Jorge’s abrasive style

Irene and Bianca take advantage of Leylah whenever she takes a break from tennis. Bianca is also a future tennis player under Jorge’s tutelage.

The couple recently moved into separate rooms, but Leylah often hangs out in Bianca’s room. The couple’s older sister, Jodeci, lives in Vermont and avoids the limelight. On International Women’s Day 2021, Leylah dedicated the following message to her mother and her sisters:

“I had to take a minute to celebrate the three women who have made the biggest impact in my life, my amazing sisters @biancajolietennis and Jodeci, and my amazing mommy! My travel schedule doesn’t always make it easy for us to be together, but they are always in my [heart] no matter where I am! I love you girls!!”

Leylah also has a lot of fun with Jorge outside of tennis. The couple have movie nights and occasionally eat burgers together. she talked to CBC on his father’s laid-back demeanor outside of court:

“He actually lets me eat what I want, which is great because he’s not too strict off the court. The only thing he is strict on is my upbringing as all parents are, other than that he just says balance your life you have time to relax and hang out but when it’s time to work you work. That’s all he wants for me, and to be independent.”

Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn