Opinion | Leylah Fernandez puts up a fight but falls to red-hot Caroline Garcia at Australian Open

Leylah Fernandez has a lovely game and an even lovelier demeanour.

Whether that’s enough to take her to a higher level in women’s tennis — to, in fact, the lofty echelon she briefly and memorably reached as a teenage runner-up at Flushing Meadows in 2021 — will reveal itself in time.

But what her second-round elimination at the Australian Open on Thursday indicated is that the young woman from Laval, Que., does not yet quite have the killer instinct that so often separates the dominators from the aspirants. Which doesn’t mean Fernandez isn’t clutch — she certainly proved her mettle knocking off three top-10 opponents before falling to another teen, Emma Raducanu, in the U.S. Open final.

Fernandez wasn’t expected to beat world No. 4 Carolina Garcia in the highly-anticipated match. The Frenchwoman was the hottest female singles player as 2022 closed out, claiming the WTA finals title and has given no sign of cooling off. Yet Fernandez had Garcia in her crosshairs, in their first-ever meeting, at Rod Laver Arena.

Up 4-0 and 5-2 in the first-set tiebreak.

Break point and set point on her racquet in the second frame.

Both times, however, Garcia dodged the bullet by deploying a devastating serve — 11 aces in total. Drew level in the tiebreak with big points under pressure at 5-5, benefitting from a critical moment of indecision by Fernandez — terrific passing shot off a poor volley that left the Canadian stranded in no man’s land. Garcia completed the rally with an ace.

Then, after Fernandez had crafted a hard-earned break point chance in the 10th game of the second set, primed to force a deciding third set, she was thwarted by another flurry of aces on the Garcia hold. Followed by Garcia jumping all over Fernandez’ serve to seize her first and only break opportunity in the frame before serving for the match — ace, return long from Fernandez, and Garcia executing her signature celebratory leaping stag. Into the third round at Melbourne for the first time since 2019, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5, in just under two hours.

Fernandez calmly collected her bag, tossed a keepsake towel to a fan in the stands and disappeared down the corridor with a farewell wave.

A mere 1-for-9 on breakpoints was Fernandez’ undoing. Over and over again, she could have taken the mickey out of Garcia. Of course, with all those aces blasted at her — couldn’t do anything about them — it was impossible to defend and change the match arc. Good fight, lost cause.

To repeat, it would have been a tremendous upset had Fernandez, world ranked No. 39, to have prevailed over Garcia. But Fernandez made her bones stunning high-ranked opponents, who saw no serious threat from this slim-framed girl with no major weapon in her arsenal. Well, that’s not entirely true. Fernandez uses her left-handedness to great advantage, creating frustrating cross-court angles where none seem to exist. And her poise is certainly an attribute. None of those aces rattled her one bit.

While Garcia was more explosive on big points and outwardly expressive about them, both women play aggressive strike tennis. There’s a lot of damage Fernandez can do on her forehand, in particular, placing it with precision. But she’s more of a baseliner, seldom going for the serve and volley, and that serve lacks the power that most female players now boast. Still, Fernandez had a 71 win percentage on her first serve and an astonishing 79 per cent on her second, compared to 52 per cent for Garcia.

The Frenchwoman recognized that Fernandez gave her a plucky battle and, if not for the aces, it could easily have been a different outcome.

“It feels like it was almost like a robber that I win the first set,’’ she acknowledged at the post-match press conference. “I was down always. I couldn’t make a point on her serve. Every game was very fast on her serve. Me, I was struggling. I was, like, saving break points. At 5-2 down, I tried to be a bit looser and play better tennis, just win it on my first set point. I was like, all right, I take it.’’

After her eye-popping performance at the U.S. Open, followed by making the quarterfinals at Roland Garros, Fernandez rose to a career-high No. 13 ranking, then suffered a setback due to a stress fracture in her right foot, never quite recovering her fitness last year. She’s struggled somewhat since then, trying to regain her form and establish high-level consistency, although the confidence isn’t wanting. “Mental is extremely important,’’ she’d noted, after her first-round victory over Alize Cornet. “For me, the mental to the physical is three to one.’’

Looking across the net on Thursday, Fernandez could take heart from an opponent who knows all about the random travails of tennis, how a player can go from sizzle to fizzle. Garcia was world No. 4 in 2018 too and it’s taken her five years to get back there, now 29 years old. A year ago at this time, she was ranked 70th.

Fernandez is still only 20. And tennis, beneath the gloss, is an intensely demanding life. To which Garcia, who recently opened up about her eating disorder, can attest.

“You’re all alone out there,’’ Fernandez said the other day. “Most of the time you don’t have a coach or the coach can’t talk to you during the points. You have to figure some things out, you have to be your own cheerleader, your own biggest critic, your own biggest supporter.’’

She’s not done Down Under yet either. She’s playing doubles with American Bethanie Mattek-Sands.

Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno

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