Leylah Annie Fernandez of Canada returns a backhand in opposition to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia right through their singles first spherical fit within the Internazionali BNL D’Italia at Foro Italico on Might 09, 2022 in Rome, Italy.
Alex Pantling | Getty Photographs
Leylah Fernandez is not any bizarre 20-year-old. She is ranked a few of the most sensible tennis gamers on the earth. She’s gained two Girls’s Tennis Affiliation titles and used to be a U.S. Open finalist in 2021.
However Fernandez could also be making a reputation for herself off the court docket – and she or he’s enthusiastic about monetary literacy.
This week, Fernandez used to be in New York as Morgan Stanley and the WTA introduced a brand new, multi-year world partnership. This system fosters inclusivity and expands get admission to to the sport of tennis. As well as, the partnership will come with monetary literacy and making plans sources for gamers.
“Morgan Stanley’s partnership with the WTA is a brilliant step ahead for ladies’s sports activities generally. I like to look firms that toughen ladies’s sports activities as a result of there’s such a lot that we will be able to do in combination and give a boost to in combination,” Fernandez, a logo ambassador for Morgan Stanley, advised CNBC in an interview Wednesday.
Fernandez stated lots of her fellow competition concern about having a career-ending damage and now not figuring out what to do. The Morgan Stanley program will lend a hand get ready them, she added.
“We are desirous about tennis our entire lives. That is the most effective factor that we all know, however it is not one thing we will be able to at all times rely on. I wish to have that balance, that idea that the whole thing goes to be all proper and we want to have the ones sources,” she stated.
Given her hyperlink to Morgan Stanley, Fernandez stated she feels an added duty not to most effective ask monetary questions for her personal excellent, however to inspire others on excursion to have that very same self assurance as smartly.
“It will be nice if we will be able to have meetings to open the dialog in a wholesome surroundings the place WTA gamers are relaxed talking their minds. I feel the trouble is we wish to be perceived as sturdy and that we all know the whole thing, however we do not,” she stated to CNBC.
Morgan Stanley used to be attracted to Fernandez’s management instance.
“She is a task fashion that folks can see themselves in. She additionally displays our logo values, together with giving again to the neighborhood, and valuing fairness and inclusion,” stated Alice Milligan, Morgan Stanley’s leader advertising and marketing officer.
Alice Milligan, Leylah Annie Fernandez and Micky Lawler attend the Morgan Stanley x Girls’s Tennis Affiliation Partnership Release on March 01, 2023 in New York Town.
Mike Coppola | Getty Photographs
Along with Fernandez’s involvement with Morgan Stanley, she has labored with Lululemon, Alphabet’s Google and Subway. Fernandez stated she’s discovered so much from her revel in within the trade international.
“To start with I used to be afraid to invite questions as a result of I used to be nervous it used to be dumb, or method too easy, however asking questions is an important factor. I want to be financially strong in existence after tennis, so having the ability to take part has opened my eyes and thoughts to a brand new international,” she advised CNBC.
Whilst touring in all places the sector for tennis tournaments and hiking to a career-high rating of 13 final summer time, Fernandez, who hails from Canada, is making her training a concern. She is majoring in trade at Indiana College East, which has a partnership with the WTA, in conjunction with the Girls’s Tennis Advantages Affiliation, to permit gamers to achieve baccalaureate levels on-line whilst competing on excursion.
As for her long term ambitions out of doors of tennis, she stated it’s nonetheless very early, however she desires to be told extra about trade and the inventory marketplace. She stated running with a Wall Boulevard large is helping on that entrance.
“I do not wish to make any drastic selections so fast with out figuring out all of the main points. That is why it’s so nice that I’m running with Morgan Stanley to lend a hand me take into account that you’ll be able to’t simply put your whole cash in a single inventory,” Fernandez stated.