AUSTRALIAN OPEN

January 17, 2025

Leylah Fernandez

Press Conference

C. GAUFF/L. Fernandez

6-4, 6-2

THE MODERATOR: Obviously not the result you were looking for today, but how do you reflect on the tournament overall?

LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: Overall it was a good tournament. First time in a third round in Australia. It's good. Every year I'm getting better, so that's always a positive.

Now, it's just kind of reset, reboot, and you know, just focus on the next tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. What was the game plan going in against Coco? Obviously you're quite familiar with her. You just played her a couple of weeks ago. Were there things you took from that match and you said, Okay, I want to shift and try to do something different this match tonight?

LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: Yeah. For me it was to try to take advantage of the point as much as possible, being on the offensive side, to not let her dictate. I think I just made one too many unforced errors. She was just very, very consistent.

I started off well, the match, but then just two or three mistakes in a row cost me. It just gave her the confidence and it just opened up the door a little bit, and she just -- I was, like, a No. 3 in the world just barged right through. So it's something I've got to work on and watch my match again, see what I can do better.

Q. Both of you have that sort of super power of getting the extra ball back. I'm curious what it feels like to go up against somebody who has that same X factor that you have. Usually you're the only person on the court who is, like, getting the ball that's off in Montana somewhere. I'm sort of curious what it's like to then see sort of the carbon copy of that on the other side.

LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: It's interesting. I guess it just makes me think that I've got to hit the ball faster, earlier, or even just find the angles a little bit more. That just kind of motivates me to get better in training so I can do that in matches.

I think she's a great athlete. She gets to a lot of balls. At the same time, some of the balls where I could have finished or win the point, I made the mistake. So that kind of, like, takes away from what we've been working on. If I can just be a little bit more consistent on the offensive side and finish the point more decisively, I feel like it can be a closer match.

I don't know if I would have won, but maybe a closer match.

Q. I think you sort of might have answered this, but your sort of goal for this year in terms of how you want to advance your game, because I know you are always working on things, if you were to sum that up, what are the things you're trying to add?

LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: It's not necessarily add. I think it's more just keep working on my game overall. You know, still being offensive, still taking the ball early, try to find ways to get to the net. But also being more consistent, minimizing those unforced errors.

You know, if I've watched some of the stats from my past matches, I think I hit over 30 unforced errors. That does not help at all. So if you play against a top player, those unforced errors in key moments is just going to cost you.

For me, I've got to work on that and just keep trusting myself with my patterns and keep hitting my targets.