NEW YORK: Leylah Fernandez gave it everything she had angles, lines, serves and miles. She kept at it for 2 hours and 21-minutes. She had practice.
The boisterous Arthur Ashe stadium crowd powered her and the 19-year-old responded with play that stoked their fire.
They chanted her name LEY-LAH, LEY-LAH, LEY-LAH as if it were a mantra for deliverance, they had her name printed on their tees, painted on their faces. It was a prayer.
After her 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-4 win over the world No.2 Aryna Sabalenka, Fernandez, ranked 73 -- who had also taken the likes of defending champion Naomi Osaka, Elina Svitolina, the fifth seed, and the 2016 winner Angelique Kerber in her spritely step – told fans "I just wanted to be in the final, I fought for every point. That's years of hard work, tears, blood, everything."
Saturday's title tilt will be a teenage party – Fernandez, older by two months, will take on the history-charting 18-year-old Emma Raducanu, the first qualifier ever to make a major final. The Briton, playing only her second Slam, outpaced and outplaced the 17th seed Maria Sakkari 6-1, 6-4 in the second semifinal.
It was a made-to-order night at the Arthur Ashe stadium, between the semifinals, the pioneering Original Nine, led by Billie Jean King, were honoured for their induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The six members in attendance were presented rings during a ceremony that applauded the ground-breakers, who paved the way for the professional tour.
The left-handed Fernandez's journey then is an ode to the Original Nine.
In an emotional interview earlier in the week her father Jorge, a former footballer from Ecuador, who now coaches the 19-year-old, broke down when the topic veered to immigrants.
"We're an immigrant family, we had nothing," he said. Canada opened its doors, if they wouldn't, I wouldn't have had the opportunities that I have. And I wouldn't have been able to give them to my daughter."
His daughter's defense against the powerful Sabalenka was purposeful. The 19-year-old waited, letting her 23-year-old opponent, who owns a Tour-leading 43 main-draw wins this season, wear herself down.
"A lot of people doubted me, my dreams. They kept saying ‘no', that I'm not going to be a professional tennis player, that I should stop and just pursue school," Fernandez said. "One teacher told me to stop playing tennis, you will never make it, and just focus on school."
"I'm glad that she told me that because of which I'm saying, I'm going to keep going, I'm going to push through and I'm going to prove to her everything that I've dreamed of I'm going to achieve."
Fernandez, who pulled off an astonishing third top-five win of the tournament, spent much of her childhood watching her family stretch themselves just so that she could hit a tennis ball. The second in a family of three girls - Jodeci and Bianca - they were forced to live away from their mother Irene, who moved to California to supplement the family's finances.
"Those years were hard for me because I needed a mom through the age of 10 to 13. I barely saw her. Every time I saw her, it was like seeing a stranger, but at the same time someone so familiar," said Fernandez, who was training with her father in Laval, Canada, at the time. "When that happened, I said, I'm going to do everything in my power to achieve my dreams so that we can be together again."
