L. FERNANDEZ/D. Shnaider
6-7, 6-3, 6-3
THE MODERATOR: A tough match. Can you share your thoughts on today's match.
LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: First of all, thank you so much for coming and for your wishes.
Yeah, today's match was extremely tough. Diana, she's an incredible player, incredible fighter. She's having an amazing year. So for me, I'm just happy with the way that I tried to reset and refocus as much as possible.
It wasn't the greatest tennis match, not very straightforward, a lot of up and down from my part. But I'm happy, as I said, taking it point by point and just trying to stay positive as much as possible.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. I believe this is your first time in Wuhan. I want to know how do you feel about the city, about everything, the tournament?
LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: So far it feels amazing. It is my first time here. Wuhan is such a beautiful city. On my first day here, I remember going for a light jog with my coach. It was incredibly fun. It was great seeing the architecture, the buildings, and the streets.
The one thing that we did comment is it's extremely clean, and we love that. I also love the facilities here. We also commented how big and how beautiful the stadiums were. We were on Court 1, and it was a beautiful stadium. I was lucky enough to play on center court in one of the biggest stages here in China. To play in front of an amazing crowd is fun.
Q. You sound a little hoarse. Are you feeling physically okay?
LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: Yeah. Honestly, I have no idea why. I literally five minutes ago was feeling good. I was talking normally, so...
I have no idea. We'll see (smiling).
Q. In Cincinnati, you had your sister with you, family. It was a fun dynamic on your team. Curious, what is the dynamic with your team now? What do you do, if anything, to keep that sense of family on the road?
LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: It's still a lot of fun. I'm traveling with my dad and my fitness trainer, Abdul. My dad is my coach. We have a great chemistry, all three of us off court, on court, too.
Today I'm just extremely happy with the way my coach was able to snap me out of my negative outbursts a couple of times. It was good to see that they were in the fight with me.
Cincinnati was super fun because I got to spend more time with my younger sister. Now she's in college. I got to spend time with her.
Today what we do here in Asia a lot is spend some quality time on team dinners, try to watch movies together, videos together, try to enjoy our time so that I don't lose that sense of, like, coming back to the room on my own now that my sister's not here.
THE MODERATOR: Chinese questions.
Q. When you were one set down, you were able to turn it over. What is your comments on your performance? Are you happy with it? What are some highlights that you got from this match?
LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: Yeah, no, I'm super happy with the way I was able to turn it over after the first-set loss. It's tough because I had a couple set points. I was ahead in the first set. On that changeover, I was extremely upset with myself. I was frustrated.
Once I got on the line, I tried to refocus, focus on hitting the ball, not overcomplicating things. I had my little notes with me, try to focus on that as much as possible.
I think little by little I was just able to calm myself down and get back into the match so I can play my game as much as possible.
Q. On-site we saw many fans cheering for you, supporting you. Does that have an impact on your comeback in this match?
LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: Definitely, it definitely did give me a lot of boost of confidence. Especially when I hear them cheer after a good point, after a long rally, feeling their energy, how positive they were, kind of motivated me to keep going and keep fighting. Knowing that today wasn't my best day, they were just there to cheer me on.
They were super, super sweet at the end of the match, too. I'm glad that I was able to get a win for them.
Q. You've had good performances in China, championship in Hong Kong last year. A lot of fans on social media platforms. Any messages you want to send to your Chinese fans?
LEYLAH FERNANDEZ: Yes, I've had a good end of the year last year in China. I think my only message for them is thank you so much for all the support, for the love, for the care that you show, not only for myself but for the athletes, for women's players, women's tennis players.
I hope that I can see more and more fans come and support us during matches and fill up the stadiums as much as possible.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports