Fernandez draws inspiration from Federer and Henin

After a rough start to the season, Leylah Fernandez is making some headway in Monterrey this week. In her fifth event of the year, the Canadian has managed to overcome the hurdle of winning two consecutive matches.

On Wednesday, she defeated qualifier Kristina Kucova, 6-1, 6-4, who dismissed the event's No. 1 seed Sloane Stephens in the previous round. In her latest presser, the 18-year-old revealed that her father taught her how to incorporate the element of surprise at an early age.

Fernandez looks up to major champions Roger Federer and Justine Henin as inspiration, masters of well-disguised drop shots and unexpected slices.

"From the very beginning, my dad would always tell me to use that element of surprise of pushing the player back and bringing them forward or just using the slices, the drop shots—like what Federer would do—Justine Henin would do it" Fernandez told press.

The world No. 89 explained how she didn't have much of an opportunity to use these shots in her opening match against American CoCo Vandeweghe, but was happy to get back to business  as usual against Kucova.

Fernandez is set to battle world No.28 Viktoria Kuzmova for a spot in the WTA 250-level event's semifinal.