Leylah Fernandez has shared her admiration for certain tennis players who excite her the most on the tour, highlighting Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz as notable standouts.
Following her recent performances in the Middle East Swing, which saw a quarterfinal finish at the Qatar Open and a second-round exit at the Dubai Tennis Championships, Fernandez is gearing up for her quest to clinch her first title of the season at the 2024 San Diego Open.
When asked about her favorite players to watch across both the ATP and WTA tours ahead of her tournament debut at the WTA 500 event, Fernandez acknowledged the challenge of picking WTA players, as she tends to approach their matches with a competitive mindset, analyzing their games to strategize her own.
“It’s a little hard because I’m watching tennis with kind of like a competitor’s eye, so not much as a fan. So, sometimes when I watch tennis, I’m watching it to analyze each player’s game, my game, to see what I can do against them so it’s a little hard right now to say which player gets me excited to keep watching,” Leylah Fernandez explained.
However, Fernandez found it easier to identify the players that captivated her the most on the men’s tour, citing Carlos Alcaraz for his intensity and diverse playing style.
“But on the men’s side, that’s a little bit easier because I’m not going to be playing against them. It’s always exciting to watch [Carlos] Alcaraz play, how he brings the intensity, the variation he gives his opponents,” she said.
She also expressed her admiration for Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, particularly praising Murray’s unwavering fighting spirit despite facing numerous challenges in recent years.
“And then also Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray. Andy Murray has gone through so much the last couple of years and the way that he just keeps fighting and finding a way like it’s always entertaining to see what he does next,” Fernandez added.
Wrapping up her list, Leylah Fernandez mentioned Alexander Bublik for his eccentric on-court antics, which never fail to entertain viewers.
“And of course there is [Alexander] Bublik, he always does some crazy stuff on the court. He always makes it in the highlight reel every year so watching him is always entertaining, he always brings a smile to my face,” she concluded.
