Layla Fernandez scores off-radar win at Wimbledon while Emma Raducanu appears for mobile sponsors

Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez were back at Wimbledon on Monday but perhaps not in the way they expected, nearly two years on from that uplifting US Open final.

Fernandez was playing in the first round out on an initially half-empty 14, one bookend of the outside courts which are wedged between Centre and Number One.

By the time she had completed a rain-delayed 6-4 4-6 6-4 win over Ukraine’s Kateryna Baindl, the British player who once dramatically beat her in New York had left the premises.

Raducanu had made a surprise appearance at the All England Club, but only to service two of the numerous contracts that flowed from that famous victory at Flushing Meadows.

She greeted, on behalf of her mobile phone sponsor, some of those who had braved dreadful first day queues. Then it was on for some promotional activity with her official water supplier.

Layla Fernandez was victorious in her opening game of Wimbledon beating Kateryna Baindl

Emma Raducanu made an appearance at Wimbledon despite not playing at the tournament

It’s been two years since Fernandez and Raducanu faced off in their famous US Open Final 

Sadly this was the only way for fans to see her this year, and it was always going to be thus once she announced in May that she was undergoing three minor surgeries on her ankle and both wrists.

There is no date for her to return, but there are hopes it might be by the end of the season, or down in Australia at the start of next year.

Things would probably have turned out differently if she had assembled a more stable set-up around her to help with the sudden elevation to fame. Seen through the British prism her decline may seem unique, but neither has Fernandez found it easy to manage the breakthrough.

Like Raducanu the 20 year-old Canadian took on a raft of endorsements in the wake of New York, and has also contended with injuries. She missed Wimbledon with a fracture of the foot last year and currently wallows at a modest 95 in singles, although she has enjoyed more success in doubles.

She is reluctant to blame the pressure of living up to what others think: ‘I’ve also expected a lot from myself,’ said Fernandez, who has learned to be patient. ‘I think it also comes with maturity and understanding that what we did was special. For me, I’ve talked a lot with my team and my parents about it.

‘So far there’s been a lot of bad, but it’s just part of the journey, it’s an adventure. I think growing up a lot of kids, especially me, thought there was a kind of one way, going up, it’s a straight line up. But in reality, there’s a lot of ups and downs, a lot more downs than then you’d expect. The important thing is to surround yourself with good people. That has helped me keep going and not just give up or throw in the towel.’

The talented lefthander fought hard yesterday but has not strung together two singles on the main tour since early January in Auckland, where Raducanu suffered – ominously as it turned out – her first injury of the season.

‘If we cross paths, we say Hi and catch up real quick and go our own way, but I still like I feel like we respect each other,’ said Fernandez.

The talented Canadian is hoping to get back on track following an up and down two years 

Elsewhere Sofia Kenin scored an opening day ‘upset’ by defeating seventh seed Coco Gauff 

While there has been a solidifying at the top of women’s tennis this year among its top three players, the previous habit of first-time Grand Slam winners fading away has contributed to a lack of rivalries at the top of the game.

Another of the fallers has been 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, who last night scored what now constitutes an upset when she knocked out number seven seed Coco Gauff.

The 24 year-old American registered probably her best win since Melbourne more than three years ago when she came through 6-4 4-6 6-2 in a match brimming with quality.

In Kenin’s case it was the pandemic which sparked a precipitous decline and she went eight months last year without a victory.

Mixed up in all that were difficulties with her father as coach, and she had fallen so far that she was forced to come through qualifying at Roehampton last week with a ranking of 128.

Within women’s tennis the current dearth of global marquee names means there is something approaching desperation for Gauff to become an authentic superstar. She features large on Wimbledon’s posters this year, but has yet to do more than Fernandez in reaching just one Grand Slam singles final.