Leylah Fernandez was left “heartbroken” after she and Venus Williams blew six match points during a recent first-round defeat at the Miami Open. The Canadian star first teamed up with the former world No. 1 at the US Open, where they reached the quarter-finals. They finally reunited at the Hard Rock Stadium, but fell to No. 6 seeds Asia Muhammad and Erin Routliffe.

Fernandez and Williams led 9-4 in the decisive 10-point tiebreak but lost all five match points, which included some errors from Fernandez. One more match point came and went before they suffered a 3-6 6-3 [13-11] defeat, leaving the world No. 24 “heartbroken”.

But Fernandez has bounced back at the Charleston Open, where she stormed past Polina Kudermetova 6-2 6-1 to reach the round-of-16. And she credited Williams for helping her get over that rough defeat in Miami.

“She’s a great mentor. I mean, in the last tiebreak, the third set tiebreaker, we were up and we lost it, and I remember I had like a couple of easy shots, easy volleys, and I missed, and I was really heartbroken at the end of the match because I was like really wanted to end the day with a win,” the 23-year-old said.

“And she told me, you know, like I played great, just to keep going, keep forward. If we all had a time machine, we would use it, but we don’t, so just keep moving forward. So with that quote, that definitely helped me to kind of recharge and look at the bright side and just keep working the next day and find ways to improve.”

It took a while for Fernandez and Williams to revive their doubles partnership after a great run in Flushing Meadows, and the world No. 24 even had to turn the seven-time Major champion down at the Australian Open, after committing to playing with Timea Babos.

“With Venus we kind of kept in contact after the US Open. We were hoping to play – well, she asked me to play in Australia, but unfortunately I was already committed with Timea, so that was it. And then I did ask if she was going to the Middle East, but she wasn’t,” Fernandez added.

“There’s no disrespect to Timea. She’s an amazing doubles player. She’s had an amazing career. But it was so hard to say no to Venus because, again, she has like that big sister energy. I never want to disappoint my siblings, and saying no to them is so hard. And when her coach messaged me, I was like, ‘Oh, no! It’s two days too late!’ I couldn’t do it. But they understood and, again, we still kept in contact. We tried to find the perfect moment to play together.”

Fernandez also entered the doubles draw in Charleston this week, alongside one of Babos’ old partners, Kristina Mladenovic. They lost their opening match to Magdalena Frech and Anna Bondar, but Fernandez is still going strong in the singles event.

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