Canada’s Leylah Fernandez will play at the Monterrey Open this week and she is hoping to retain her title from last year after she beat Viktorija Golubic in the final in 2021 to win her first WTA title.

The world number 21 is seeded second in the tournament and she has already beaten her opponent in the opening round, Anna Karolina Schmiedolova 6-2, 6-2, to advance to the next round where she will face either Qinwen Zheng or Lucia Bronzetti of China. Italy.

If she succeeds enough to progress through the competition, she could face some tough matches including former US Open champion and recent Guadalajara Open winner Sloane Stephens, Maddison Keys and top seed Elina Svitolina, but Fernandez accepted the challenge.

Net win for @leylahfernandez

The reigning champion started his Monterrey run with a straight sets win against Schmiedlova.#BukaGNPSure pic.twitter.com/AZnIOEBlEv

– wta (@WTA) March 1, 2022

“I’m so happy to be back in Monterrey, it’s a very special city for me, that’s where I won my first title,” the US Open finalist explained.

“I hope I can defend my title and I hope I will improve day by day and enjoy my experience on the pitch like the last few years.

“It motivates me because it’s part of the sport and I hope I have more chances to defend the title, it will be my first tournament and I hope everything will be fine, but at the moment I’m not thinking about it, I’m focused on enjoying my tennis. .”

The Montreal-born player has not had a great start to the season, he only made it to the last 16 at the Adelaide International and suffered a shock loss in the opening round of the Australian Open.

But she recently opened up about how a teacher told her to stop playing tennis when she was younger, but despite her current bad form, she doesn’t want to do anything else.

He revealed: “There was a teacher who told me to leave tennis, I would just tell him ‘Thanks for telling me that’, because it just brought more hunger for me to keep pursuing tennis.

“He wasn’t the only one who told me to stop but that (time) I really remember.

“I came out of class after school, crying to my mom, she said, ‘You know what? Don’t listen to that teacher, just prove him wrong.’ I’m glad I did that.”

Fernandez’s next opponent at the Monterrey Open will be Zhang or Bronzetti.