OMNIUM BANQUE NATIONALE

July 28, 2025

Leylah Fernandez

Press Conference

THE MODERATOR: Firstly, congratulations on your D.C. title. Just quickly, reflect on the last week and how you're preparing now for Montreal.

LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: Yeah, it's been a wonderful week in Washington. Super happy with the result, with the level of play, the competitiveness that I brought to the court.

I'm very excited to be in Montreal for the tournament. It's one of my favorite tournaments to be here, so I'm just happy to be able to compete and to play in front of the home crowd. Hopefully there will be a big crowd during our matches.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English, please.

Q. What clicked for you in this tournament? I know the rest of the year hasn't gone as well, so...

LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: You can be honest. You can say the rest of the year hasn't been great (laughing). It's been pretty shit, to be honest (laughing).

I guess in Washington it's been just a good week overall. I've been working very hard for a long time. You know, it started with just good environment, good vibes with the team members, having dinner with the other Canadian girls that were at the tournament. So it was always good environment from the beginning.

Then on court I was just enjoying myself a lot more, and I was able to play well in front of a big crowd. So, yeah, I guess everything just clicked in that week, and hopefully continues on for Montreal.

Q. What have things looked like for you since you won? Did you get a chance to celebrate, maybe with some Shake Shack, or was it straight to Montreal to prepare for this tournament? What does that look like?

LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: Yeah, it's a little bit of both, actually. After the media in Washington, we packed very quickly. We had maybe a 20-minute, 30-minute session of packing, so kind of threw everything in the luggage and went our way to the airport.

We made a stop to Shake Shack so we could have a little celebratory burger and hot dog. That was good. We couldn't stop the routine.

Then on the way here late last night so that I can rest up here, get a good feel of the environment and of the crowd and the first day before hitting the practice courts tomorrow.

Q. There's no Shake Shack here, right? Do you have any ideas or...

LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: Actually, I don't know. We're going to have to find a different type of routine, but we're just going to take it one day at a time. We're going to have some good food. There's definitely a list of restaurants that we want to go to this week that they don't have in the U.S., only here in Canada. That's definitely on our to-do list.

Pre-match, pre-tournament is just going to be find a good spot where I feel comfortable in and just enjoy some good food with family and friends.

(Questions in French)