Fil-Can’t

We only knew about women’s tennis in Canada because of Bianca Andreescu, its first grand slam singles titlist two years ago. And maybe its first grand slam finalist too, the forgettable Eugenie Bouchard. But this year the country of calming lakes leaks another player, Leylah Fernandez whose father is from Ecuador and mother Canadian of Filipino descent.

It is easy to claim she is one of us, especially now that she reached the US Open semifinals at the expense of Elina Svitolina whose honeymoon she must have ruined. The Ukrainian just married Gael Monfils, the French veteran yet to break through the majors, partly because he entertains the crowd more than win his matches.

Leylah already stunned as early as the third round when she upset defending champion Naomi Osaka. The daughter of a former football player swept the Japanese third seed with her close to perfect first serve percentage. The mentally vulnerable superstar was sent to tears and forced to contemplate on her career options.

She beat these heavyweights in three punishing sets. Make it four or five and she thrives. She just turned 19, a day after the round of 16 where she beat fellow lefty Angelique Kerber, the German multiple major titlist. Lefty, not leftist lest she be red tagged, although she raises her clenched fist to celebrate winning a hard-fought point, reminiscent of women activists.

No doubt about half her roots. She looks every inch a Filipina especially with her beautiful brown skin. Although at 5’6” she is taller than an average Filipina, she is shorter than an average tennis player. The highest court of the land doesn’t have to describe her appearance like it did to a presidential candidate before.

While she looks like us, we have no prior claim she is one of us. We didn’t find her, much less train her into a world class tennis player. I’m not even sure if she has found us. But I’m sure her Filipina mother told her many things about her home country and why she had to leave it.

Let her be, she is in a far better place. But if we cannot have her, let’s at least share her. It would be great to see her play doubles with our very own Alex Eala who must be inspired by her amazing run. But right now the Filipina tennis prodigy is also busy at the US Open for girls, dispatching a home bet to book a berth in the third round.

In 2020, Alex won the girls doubles title down under and reached the singles semifinals at the clay slam. Such promise, the future is bright for her. While the future arrived earlier for Leylah, she too had to prove herself in the junior circuit first. In 2019 she reached singles finals of the Australian Open and won the French Open girls singles title. But now she transitioned big time to the women’s tour, leading teen invasion at Flushing Meadows. It’s not yet changing of the guards, but guarding once exclusive backyards. Blink and you’re blanked. Including you, Novak.