Following her post-Wimbledon reset, Fernandez reconsidered her baseline motivation and long-term passion for the sport.
"I try to come back to the very basics of things, like why I started playing tennis, if this is still something that I want to do," she said.
"I would try to ask myself these questions and of course at the end of the day it's always like, I love playing tennis because I always want to improve myself, I love the competition that comes with it."
Fernandez also reflected on the timeline expectations placed on professional careers and how she balances internal pressure.
"It's weird because a lot of people say I have a lot of time, and for the longest time I've been thinking, 'Well, not really,' because a career kind of ends in between 10 to 15 years, depending on what age you start," she said.
"And some people would say, you don't have time. And I'm like, 'Well actually, maybe I do because a season is long.'"
"It's kind of a push and pull."
She credited her coaching team and father, Jorge Fernandez, with offering perspective during tense stretches of the calendar.
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"Especially this year when I was thinking, 'No, I don't got time, I gotta do better, I gotta win matches.'
The team with me that's travelling was saying, 'Hey, slow your roll. Results will come, just focus on the process,'" she said.
