Canadian Leylah Fernandez won the 2025 Mubadala Citi Open on Sunday afternoon. It was the biggest tournament win of her career. With professional tennis’s crazy summer hardcourt schedule, Fernandez barely had time to celebrate before thinking about her next match scheduled for two days later, at her home tournament in Montreal.
Brilliance, from start to finish 🤩
Leylah Annie Fernandez 🇨🇦, you’ve captured the Mubadala Citi DC Open and our hearts 🫶
What a way to get ready for the Canadian stage, bringing the heat to Montreal 🔥 pic.twitter.com/6SHh2MlWSG
— Tennis Canada (@TennisCanada) July 27, 2025
Fernandez was initially told by the National Bank Open that her opening match would be on Tuesday night giving her some time to touch down in Montreal and get a little practice in on the courts. While traveling from DC to Montreal on Sunday night, she was informed that she would be playing in the Tuesday day session match. She lost in straight sets to Maya Joint whom she ironically defeated last week in Washington, DC on her way to the WTA 500 win.
Fernandez is not out of the tournament completely. She and younger sister Bianca were given a wildcard to play doubles and will take the court together on Wednesday.
Leylah Fernandez confirmed that she and sister Bianca will be back in action on the doubles court next week in Montreal.
Last year, the Fernandez sisters entered as WCs and made an exciting run to the semifinals at @NBOtoronto 🇨🇦#MubadalaCitiDCOpen | @mubadalacitidc pic.twitter.com/X4a6QgrYpa
— Hanlon Walsh (@HanlonWalsh) July 26, 2025
The whole experience has Fernandez wondering why she could not get more favorable scheduling especially at her home tournament. The National Bank Open Montreal WTA Tour director Valerie Tetreault said she fought for Fernandez, but the WTA has the last word on scheduling.
WTA Did Not Do Leylah Fernandez Any Favors
Apparently, the WTA scheduled Fernandez’s match as late as possible on Tuesday, making it the final match in her section of the draw.
Tennis fans do not understand those nuances, but they do know appearances. Canada’s Victoria Mboko had the late match on Tuesday night against Sofia Kenin. That was not Fernandez’s section of the draw, but let’s be serious, who is the Canadian WTA player pictures prominently on the National Bank Open tournament website? It is Leylah Fernandez.
This is no disservice to Mboko who is an exciting and emerging star, but if the WTA wants players to keep up this crazy schedule, they need to figure out ways to reward the winner of the prior week’s tournament when the two events overlap.
It is no wonder players are burned out, injured, and tired. This is a hard schedule to maintain in victory or defeat. Transitioning to new courts, climates, weather conditions, and balls on an almost weekly basis must be exhausting.
