Canadian upsets stars of tennis at tournament in New Zealand
18-year-old from Ontario downs Venus Williams in New Zealand
Canadian tennis player Bianca Andreescu made two key decisions last year that have helped her kick off the 2019 campaign in style.
After recovering from a back injury last summer, she decided to focus on the lower-level Challenger series and quickly returned to form. Andreescu also moved her off-season training from Boca Raton to the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., which allowed her to practise against tougher opponents.
Those calls helped Andreescu start this season feeling strong and assured. The players she has eliminated at the ASB Classic — including former world No. 1s Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams — can attest to that.
“She showed up in Auckland full of confidence and playing really, really well,” said Canadian women’s coach Sylvain Bruneau. “It was a matter of her believing she could just go out there, play her game, lay it out on the court and just believe.”
A day after stunning Wozniacki in straight sets, Andreescu pulled off another big upset Friday by dispatching Williams — a seven-time Grand Slam champion — 6-7 (1), 6-1, 6-3 in quarterfinal play.
“I believe that anything is possible and tonight I think I did the impossible,” Andreescu said in an on-court interview after the match. “I don’t even know what to say. It’s just such an amazing feeling.”
Not bad for a teenaged qualifier who started the week ranked No. 152 in the world.
“She’s only 18 and she’s got really, really good potential,” Bruneau said Friday from Melbourne. “From an athletic perspective and also from a competitive standpoint mentally, (she’s) a great athlete. It’s all very exciting. There’s a lot more tennis to (play) and a lot more improvement, (we’ll) keep working.
“For sure that first tournament of 2019 is very positive and reinforces the stuff that we’ve been doing.”
After losing the first set and dropping the opening game of the second set, Andreescu won 11 straight games against the sixth-seeded Williams.
“I was like, ‘What is going on? I just broke her five times in a row,”’ Andreescu said. “She’s one of the best servers in the game. Today she didn’t serve as well as other matches I’ve seen her play. But I took control of that. It was honestly a gift, maybe like a late Christmas present.”
After winning the first five games in the decisive third set, Andreescu let Williams back in the match.
“I got really tight at 5-0,” she said. “I’m like, ‘I’m one game away from winning this,’ but then she started raising her level and I kind of stepped back. At 5-3, I’m like, ‘OK screw this. I’m just going to go for everything,’ and that’s what I did and it worked.
“Maybe I should just do that every point.” The 37-year-old Williams, who turned pro six years before Andreescu was born, is ranked 39th in the world. Wozniacki, meanwhile, is the world No. 3 and reigning Australian Open champion. “It feels like a double dream,” Andreescu said. Next up for the Canadian is a semifinal matchup against third seed and 28th-ranked Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei. Unseeded Viktoria Kuzmova of Slovakia faces No. 2 seed Julia Goerges in the other semifinal after the German downed Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (6).
Andreescu will top her career-high ranking of No. 143 (set Aug. 14, 2017) when the new list is released next week, WTA Tour statistics and information director Kevin Fischer said in an email.
It’s too early for specifics since other results may factor in, but she’s projected to move to No. 114 by reaching the semifinal. A win on Saturday could bump her up to No. 107 and a victory in Sunday’s final could launch her as high as No. 89.