By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday September 9, 2021
As Leylah Fernandez takes her spot in the US Open final, becoming the youngest Grand Slam finalist since Maria Sharapova in 2004, her father and coach, Jorge Fernandez, talked with TSN’s Mark Masters about what it means to be playing for Canada. Fernandez is Ecuadorian-born, and his wife was born in Toronto to Filipino parents.
The family has been through it’s share of travails, and has overcome them brilliantly.
Fernandez spoke about the meaning of being Canadian with Masters in this short, sweet and beautiful segment.
“It means everything,” Fernandez said. “There’s a lot of talk in the news about immigrant people, and I understand nationalist sentiments and I understand how we need to protect and how we only have so many resources, I understand all that. And I don’t want to get political, that’s not what I’m doing. What I’m telling you is that we’re an immigrant family and we had nothing.
“Canada opened up its doors and if they wouldn’t have done what they did, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity that I had and I wouldn’t been able to give them to my daughter, so it means a lot.”