Leylah Fernandez in tears as she opens up on personal tragedy after Pan Pacific Final loss to Diana Shnaider

Leylah Fernandez was unable to hold back tears following her Pan Pacific Open final loss to Diana Shnaider as she paid tribute to a recently deceased family member.

Shnaider looked to be cruising to her first title of the season on Sunday after going 6-4, 4-0 up against Fernandez in the WTA 500 event.

However, the Canadian mounted a stunning comeback, winning the second set 7-5. But, the Russian regained her composure and closed out a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 victory in two hours and 18 minutes.

In the wake of her victory, Shnaider said, “Firstly, I would like to congratulate Leylah on an amazing week, last week, some great achievements through this Asia Swing. Congrats to you, your coach, and your family back home. Keep going and for sure hope to see you more in the finals like this in the future.

“I also want to say thanks to and congratulate my coach (Sascha Bajin), who is here with me to achieve our first title this season. It means definitely a lot, so definitely a great achievement and a great finish to the season. I want to also say huge thanks to my family who is watching at home and also super happy.”

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Before Shnaider’s speech, Fernandez congratulated the 22-year-old for her win, thanked the tournament organisers for all their efforts and the fans for all their support this week. The 24-year-old then thanked her coach Eric Hechtman and sent a touching message to her grieiving wider family back in Canada.

Fernandez, whose mum Irene is a Filipino-Canadian, said they had some “bad news” today and appeared to suggest that ‘Lolo’ her grandfather has died. The former US Open finalist was able to fight through the tears to give a touching tribute.

“First of all I would like to congratulate Diana. An amazing week, a great match. Congratulations to you and your team. Hopefully we can have many more battles like this one,” she said.

“Second, I would like to thank my coach Eric, who is here. Thank you so much for being here this week and last. We just got to keep going. I want to thank my team who are back home watching. Without your guys’ support this wouldn’t be possible so thank you for always believing in me.”

Fernandez finished by saying, “And lastly I just want to thank my family who are back home. We had some bad news today but thank you so much for all the support, all the messages, it really means a lot.

“And Lolo, I know you are looking down on us so thank you for always being strong and supporting us. I know you are going to take care of us from above, so thank you.”

The victory lifted Shnaider back to a career-high ranking of 11, as she earned the sixth WTA title of her career. Fernandez is up to 19th after reaching back-to-back finals in Ningbo and now Tokyo.

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