‘I don’t know what to say’
Andreescu makes Canadian history, advances to U.S. Open final in thrilling win
NEW YORK — In one of the promos that runs on American television coverage of the U.S. Open, players are asked about their memories of Serena Williams’ first victory at the tournament.
“I wasn’t,” Bianca Andreescu says, pausing a beat, “born.”
And now the Canadian teen will meet the American legend in the finals here on Saturday, with Andreescu trying for her first U.S. Open title and Williams going for her seventh, 20 years after her first.
A huge comeback in the second set gave Andreescu a straight-sets win (7-6, 7-5) in a tremendously tight thriller over Belinda Bencic.
When it was over, Andreescu had her hands on her head again, looking shocked. First U.S. Open main draw. First U.S. Open final. Those things are not supposed to go together.
“I don’t know what to say,” she said on court.
Here’s one thing she could say: She’s the first Canadian to make a U.S. Open singles final ever, and the first to make any Slam final since Milos Raonic at Wimbledon three years ago. No Canadian has won a Slam singles title.
The victory sets up a rematch with Williams from last month in Toronto at the Rogers Cup, where the American legend pulled out early in the first set, citing back spasms.
Andreescu played a resilient first set on Thursday night, unable to put much pressure at all on the rock-steady Bencic, who repeatedly had chances to break the Canadian’s serve.
But Andreescu bailed herself out just as repeatedly, saving all six break points in the set, one of them a set point for Bencic, and sent the first set to a tiebreaker. Once there, she dominated, winning the first five points and the last two to take it 7-3. It was a tremendous escape, a set in which she played defence most of the time but won just enough of the big points.
The escape routes closed up in the second set, though, with Bencic feasting on second serves and Andreescu unable to land enough of her first serves in play. All of a sudden it was a 4-1 lead in the set for Bencic, and then 5-2.
At which point Andreescu did that thing where she shakes off whatever has been causing her to lose focus, zeroes in again, and just starts hammering the ball all over the court. She broke Bencic’s serve, and then did it again, and then it was Bencic serving to try to close out the set. Bencic actually won the first two points in that game, and then the Canadian ripped a forehand winner, then outlasted her on two more points — just relentless tennis — to get to a break point. Bencic, so solid early, was now shaken.
Double-fault, and the set was even again.
“I think when I’m down, I play my best tennis,” Andreescu said. “Whenever my back is against the wall, I think I’m just extra focused in those moments. I remember I told myself at 5-2 that I didn’t want to go in three sets. So I think just that switched my mindset. I was just really, really focused.”
Andreescu is the first teen to make the U.S. Open semis in more than a decade, and is only the fourth woman to reach the final four in New York in her first main-draw appearance, joining three of the sport’s luminaries: Chris Evert, Venus Williams and Pam Shriver.
She’s also only the third Canadian women to advance that far in the Open’s 139-year history, joining Carling Bassett (1984) and Lois Moyes (1909). Andreescu was asked after her quarter-final win what she knew about Moyes. “I didn’t know there would be a pop quiz,” she said.