Bianca Andreescu
Bianca Vanessa Andreescu is a Canadian professional tennis player. She has been ranked world No. 4 in women's singles by the WTA. Andreescu has won three singles titles, two on the WTA Tour, the 2019 Indian Wells Open, the 2019 Canadian Open, and a major title at the 2019 US Open. She is the first Canadian, male or female, to win a major singles title, and the first to win the Canadian Open in 50 years.
Andreescu began playing tennis in her parents' home country of Romania before returning to Canada, the country of her birth. She had success as a junior, winning the Orange Bowl and two major doubles titles with compatriot Carson Branstine en route to reaching a career-best junior ranking of No. 3 in the world. After not playing any matches at the WTA Tour level in 2018, Andreescu had a breakout year in 2019. She rose to prominence by winning the Indian Wells Open, a Premier Mandatory tournament, and later swept the Canadian Open and US Open events, defeating Serena Williams in both finals. Although she missed several months due to injury, Andreescu qualified for the WTA Finals at the end of the season and finished the year ranked No. 5.
Andreescu's style of play combines power with variety and has been widely regarded as "fun to watch" by tennis commentators and journalists.
Early life and background
Bianca Vanessa Andreescu was born in Mississauga, Ontario to Nicu and Maria Andreescu. Her parents emigrated from Romania to Canada in 1994 when her father accepted a job in the country. Andreescu's father works as a mechanical engineer at an automotive company, while her mother had worked at a bank in Romania. Her family moved back to Romania when Bianca was six years old so that her mother could start a business in their home country. After two and a half years, they closed the business and returned to Canada. Her mother has since worked as the chief compliance officer at a financial services company. Andreescu began playing tennis in Pitești at the age of seven. She was initially coached by Gabriel Hristache, a friend of her father. When she returned to Canada, she trained at the Ontario Racquet Club in Mississauga before moving to the U14 National Training Centre in Toronto operated by Tennis Canada. She began training more seriously at the age of 12.Juniors
Andreescu had a career-high junior ranking of No. 3 in world, which she achieved in early 2016. She had early success as a junior, winning Les Petits As, a prestigious 14-and-under tournament, in 2014. She also won the 16-and-under Orange Bowl at the end of the year, becoming the fourth Canadian in a row to win that event. Andreescu began playing 18-and-under events on the ITF Junior Circuit in late 2013. She won her first titles in 2014, three in singles and one in doubles, at Grade-4 and Grade-5 tournaments, the two lowest levels.Andreescu moved up to higher-level events in early 2015, winning both the singles and doubles titles at the Condor de Plata tournament in Bolivia, her first Grade-2 tournament. She finished runner-up to compatriot Charlotte Robillard-Millette at the Open International Junior de Beaulieu-sur-Mer, her first Grade-1 tournament. Andreescu had less immediate success at the highest-level Grade-A tournaments, losing her opening round matches at her first four such events, which included the last three major events of the year. Nonetheless, she defeated Robillard-Millette in their home country to win the Canadian Open Junior Championships during the summer, her first Grade 1 title. Late in the year, Andreescu reached both the singles and doubles final at the Yucatán Cup, finishing runner-up to Kayla Day in singles while winning her first doubles title at the Grade-1 level. At her last tournament of the year, Andreescu defeated Day to win the Orange Bowl, her first Grade-A title. She was the first player to win the girls' under-16 and under-18 titles in back-to-back years since Mary Joe Fernández in 1984 and 1985. During the season, Andreescu also represented Canada at the Junior Fed Cup with Robillard-Millette and Vanessa Wong. Andreescu and Robillard-Millette lost the decisive doubles rubber in the semifinals against the Czech Republic. However, they recovered to win both of their singles rubbers against Russia to take third place. Andreescu was named Outstanding Junior Female by Tennis Canada at the end of the year.
Andreescu had more success at the Grand Slam tournaments in 2016, but did not win any titles in singles or doubles at any level. As the top seed at the Australian Open in both singles and doubles, she withdrew from both events after two matches each because of recurring injuries involving her left adductor and right ankle, as well as a stress fracture in her foot. These injuries kept her out for six months. Andreescu returned to competition at Wimbledon, where she lost in the third round. At the US Open, she had her best run at a major event to date, reaching the semifinals in singles where she lost to Day. The last two junior events of Andreescu's career came in 2017 at the Grand Slam tournaments. She matched her best Grand Slam result in singles at the Australian Open, where she was defeated by Rebeka Masarova in the semifinals. She then made it to the quarterfinals of the French Open at her last singles event, losing to Claire Liu. Nonetheless, Andreescu won the major doubles titles at both of these tournaments with Carson Branstine. The pair defeated the Polish team of Maja Chwalińska and Iga Świątek in the Australian Open final, and the Russian pair of Olesya Pervushina and Anastasia Potapova in the French Open final. With their French Open title, Andreescu and Branstine became the first Canadian team to win a major girls' doubles title.
Professional
2015–18: ITF titles, WTA Tour doubles final
Andreescu began playing on the ITF Circuit in July 2015. She finished runner-up to No. 155 Alexa Glatch in her professional tournament, a 25k event in Gatineau. She was given wildcards into qualifying at the Canadian Open in 2015 and 2016, but was unable to qualify. Andreescu missed most of the first half of 2016 due to injury. When she returned, she had success at ITF events in Canada. She won her first ITF titles in singles and doubles at the August 2016 event in Gatineau, winning the doubles with junior rival Robillard-Millette. In October, she finished runner-up in both the singles and doubles events at the higher-level 50k Challenger de Saguenay, again partnering with Robillard-Millette. During the singles event, she defeated No. 113 Jennifer Brady in a third-set tiebreak in the semifinals, before losing to No. 111, CiCi Bellis, in the final.Andreescu won two more 25k titles in early 2017, which helped her break into the top 200 of the WTA rankings. After losing in qualifying at the French Open, she was able to qualify for the main draw at Wimbledon. She lost her Grand Slam debut to No. 105 Kristína Kučová. Later in the month, she was awarded a wildcard into the main draw of the Washington Open. She defeated Camila Giorgi in the opening round, her first win on the WTA Tour. In her next match, she upset world No. 13, Kristina Mladenovic, to advance to the quarterfinals, where she lost to Andrea Petkovic. A few weeks later, she made her Canadian Open main-draw debut as a wildcard entrant, losing to No. 55 Tímea Babos. Andreescu entered qualifying at the US Open, but lost her opening match. In the last stage of the season, she had more success in doubles. She reached her first WTA final in doubles with compatriot Carson Branstine at the Tournoi de Québec. They finished runners-up to top seeds Tímea Babos and Andrea Hlaváčková. She then partnered with compatriot Carol Zhao to win the doubles title at the $60k Challenger de Saguenay. Andreescu's best ranking during the year was No. 143, and she finished the season at No. 182.
Andreescu did not play any tour-level matches in 2018. She entered qualifying for all four majors, but did not qualify for any of them. She came the closest at the French Open and Wimbledon, falling one match short at both. Andreescu played primarily at the 25k level, reaching four finals. She had two runner-up finishes in April and two titles late in the season. One of her best results at higher-level events was a quarterfinal at the 100k Midland Tennis Classic. She also reached the semifinals of the 60k Challenger de Granby, where she withdrew due to a back injury. This injury kept her out of the Canadian Open. After attempting to qualify at the US Open, she did not return to competition until late October. Andreescu's two late-season titles helped her finish the year at No. 152 in the world.
2019: US Open champion, world No. 4
Despite entering the year having not played a WTA Tour match in over 14 months, Andreescu had a breakthrough season that took her from well outside the top 100 into the upper echelon of women's tennis. She began the season by qualifying for the main draw at the Auckland Open, where she made her first WTA Tour singles final. During the tournament, she upset top seed and world No. 3, Caroline Wozniacki, and defeated three top 40 players, before finishing runner-up to defending champion and second seed, Julia Görges. She also qualified for the Australian Open and won one match against Whitney Osuigwe, her first win in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament. Before the end of the month, Andreescu won a WTA 125 title at the Newport Beach Challenger. With these three results, she rose from No. 152 at the start of the year to No. 107 after the Auckland runner-up, to No. 68 after the Australian Open and WTA 125 title, a large enough ascent to become Canada's top-ranked player on the tour.Andreescu continued her hot streak with a semifinal at the Mexican Open. She then had an even larger breakthrough at the Premier Mandatory Indian Wells Open, where she won her first career title. Andreescu defeated four top 20 players in the last four rounds, including No. 6 Elina Svitolina and No. 8 Angelique Kerber in the semifinals and final, respectively, both in three sets. She became the first wildcard women's singles champion in tournament history and was the first 18-year-old to win the event since Serena Williams in 1999. This title also took her to No. 24 in the WTA rankings. Andreescu defeated Kerber again at the Miami Open a week later. However, she then suffered a right shoulder injury in the fourth round of the event that forced her to retire from the match. Andreescu's injury kept her out of all but one tournament until August. She attempted an early comeback at the French Open, but ultimately withdrew after one match. Andreescu made her next return at her home tournament, the Canadian Open, where she won her second high-level Premier tournament of the year. She won her first four matches in three sets, including the last two over top-ten opponents in No. 5 Kiki Bertens and No. 3 Karolína Plíšková. She defeated tenth seed Serena Williams in the final, who needed to retire due to back spasms down 1–3 in the first set. With these three top ten victories, Andreescu improved her record against top ten opponents to 7–0 to open her career. With the title, she moved up to No. 14 in the world. She also became the first Canadian to win the tournament since Faye Urban in 1969.
Andreescu's best result of the year came at the US Open, where she won her first major title. She advanced to the final without facing a top-ten opponent, with her biggest wins coming against No. 19, Caroline Wozniacki, in the third round and No. 12 Belinda Bencic in the semifinals. Her opponent in the final was again Serena Williams. Andreescu defeated Williams in straight sets to win the title. She became the first Canadian tennis player to win a major singles title, and the first teenage major singles champion since Maria Sharapova won the 2006 US Open. She also became the first player to win the US Open in their main-draw debut, and was at the time tied with Monica Seles for being the quickest to win a major singles title by doing so in her fourth main-draw appearance, a record since broken by Emma Raducanu. She also rose to No. 5 in the world. Andreescu's 17-match win streak was ended in the quarterfinals of the China Open by No. 4 Naomi Osaka, which was also her first career loss against a top-ten opponent. She reached a career-high ranking of world No. 4 on 21 October, making her the highest ranked Canadian woman in the history of the WTA. She closed out the year at the WTA Finals, where she withdrew after two losses to Simona Halep and Plíšková due to a knee injury. At the end of the season, Andreescu was awarded the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada's top athlete of the year. She was the first tennis player to win the award.