When asked to recall her most vivid memory of being crowned 2019 Roland Garros girls’ champion, Leylah Annie Fernandez points to enjoying a celebratory McDonald’s Big Mac and watching a movie with her father, Jorge.

It was a poignant moment and a treasured recollection given all the hard work involved in achieving a childhood dream, which is how Fernandez described her triumph on the clay of Paris at the time.

The Canadian teenager, however, was not prepared to dine out on her success for too long, and to label the intervening 16-month period as something of a whirlwind would be no exaggeration.

Despite the difficulties 2020 has presented, it is still a year which has seen Fernandez surge into the Top 100, win her maiden match in the main draw of a Grand Slam, contest a first Tour-level final and defeat a host of lofty opponents.

Little more than a year after featuring on the junior circuit for the final time, the 18-year-old is now preparing to face Poland’s Magda Linette in the opening round of a Grand Slam which means so much to her.

It is also the second successive Grand Slam for which Fernandez has qualified by virtue of her ranking, having reached the second round of last month’s US Open before slipping to defeat against Sofia Kenin. It has been a considerable rise to prominence.

“I am so excited,” Fernandez told itftennis.com. “Last year, I was playing juniors and I could only watch the professional players but now I am here to compete as one of them.

“I was lucky enough to watch Rafael Nadal live in his semi-final match against Roger Federer and I remember thinking, ‘I want to be here next year’, and I have achieved that.

“I was sitting only a couple of seats behind Nadal and it was very exciting. Even though I only saw a couple of games, watching him inspired me and still inspires me to do better.”

It was perched in front of the television and watching Nadal and Justine Henin win Roland Garros in 2007 which first introduced a four-year-old Fernandez to the concept of winning in the French capital.

She returns to Roland Garros with a Junior Grand Slam title forever etched on her career CV thanks to a straight sets victory over American Emma Navarro in the girls’ final last May.

Her impressive career trajectory and sizeable achievements are there for all to see and they will no doubt act as motivation for the 64 competitors entering this year’s girls' draw, which gets underway on 4 October.

“Being here brings back great memories,” said Fernandez, who competed at the 2018 ITF Junior Finals in Chengdu.

“It’s a special place and a positive place for me. From the first practice session, the feelings I had on court a year ago came back. The courts feel the same as they did then.

“Winning a Junior Grand Slam gave me a lot of confidence to transition to the professional game. That transition is very difficult but to win a Junior Grand Slam put in place the sense that I was heading in the right direction and gave me belief.”

Making her mark in the professional ranks is not the only change in her life. Fernandez this year completed High School and has started an online Business Administration course at Indiana University East, which is partnered with the WTA and helps its members pursue post-secondary education.

Despite being about to compete at a Grand Slam, Fernandez, who has developed a love for ballroom dancing in recent months, still has plates to spin and an off-court focus.

“I’m really enjoying the course,” said Fernandez. “I’m preparing for Roland Garros but I’m also studying, especially in the evenings as it helps me disconnect from tennis.

“It is good for the mind to focus on something else. But when I’m on court I’m grateful to be on court.”

Studying is important to Fernandez and during an interview with itftennis.com in April she revealed she was analysing sporting icons such as Lionel Messi, Mike Tyson, Sidney Crosby, Wayne Gretzky, Isaiah Thomas, Pele and Floyd Mayweather.

“I focus on having great tennis IQ, believing in my style and using other players in different sports as motivation,” said Fernandez. “I am not as big as the other female players on Tour so I assume there have been times when I’ve been underestimated.

“My father [and coach Jorge] insists I study players from different sports in order to understand that my stature is perfect for my personality and skills. I look into their creativity, uniqueness, use of angles, speed, aggressive defence and fluidity of their movements.”

It is an approach which is clearly working for Montreal-born left-hander, while she is targeting further significant strides in the coming weeks and months as she plots her course to the sport's upper echelons.

“I am pleased with how the journey is going right now,” she added. “I would have wished results would have been different in one or two tournaments but I am still happy with how I have been working and the way that my game is progressing.

“I am proud that I am a young woman, trying to be independent and making my own decisions. I am pleased with how I am conducting myself on court and how much stronger I am getting.

“Hopefully I will go higher in the rankings in the next few weeks and be in the Top 80, Top 70, Top 60 before the end of the year.  I want to keep getting results, win some tournaments and hopefully crack the Top 50 in the next 12 months.”