By superstition, the father of Fernandez will not attend the final | Radio Lake

Jorge Fernandez will not attend the US Open final which will pit his daughter Leylah, of whom he is also the coach, against Emma Raducanu on Saturday in New York.

Superstitious, he fears disrupting habits that have worked well so far.

"No, I won't be there. I'm extremely superstitious. My daughter is too", explained during a conference call this former Ecuadorian professional football player, who took his tennis career into his own hands. of her daughter when she was seven years old, without knowing much about the sport.

"We don't touch it"

"I use the same shampoo on game day, I wear the same jeans, the same socks and the same underwear. It's not nothing new. You tie your shoelaces a certain way. Leylah and I, when we find something that works, we don't touch it," said Jorge Fernandez, who will watch his daughter play from his home in Florida, as he has done since the start of the tournament.

Jorge Fernandez knows that Leylah (19) will have a hard time facing Emma Raducanu (18). "She's going to play against another warrior. I don't think age or ranking should matter. This is a final. You have to give your all, you have to make sure that whatever either way it ends, there are no regrets," he said.

The memory of Acapulco

He remembers with bitterness the last time he was present in the stands for a final involving his daughter. "It was in Acapulco last year and she lost. I hated myself for a good two months after. People said to me: 'Come on, it's just a match, she went to the final.' But deep inside me, it was +No, I shouldn't have come. I shouldn't have been there."

"It's really a question of superstition. She knows that I support her from afar. I'm in her heart and she's in mine. Anyone who saw her in the stadium, it's fantastic. But I'll watch her from across my kitchen table, where we usually eat dinner, and we'll get through this," he concluded.

This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp