Andreescu wins opening match
Canadian ace takes 3 sets to dispatch of Romanian to begin Australian Open
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — When faced with adversity in her first competitive tennis match in 15 months, Bianca Andreescu recalled how she persevered in some of her big victories in her breakout 2019 season.
It helped the Canadian overcome a stiff challenge in a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 first-round win over Romania’s Mihaela Buzarnescu on Monday at the Australian Open.
Serving at 3-3 in the deciding set and down love-40, Andreescu reeled off five straight points for the hold and took control of the match from there.
“I have a little bit of a feel of how it is to be in that situation,” she said. “But I was super-relieved to get that game because I’m sure things would have been different afterwards (otherwise).”
Andreescu said it reminded her of a similar three-set win over Angelique Kerber in the 2019 Indian Wells final.
“I was just thinking about that and how calm I was during that match,” she said. “So I was telling myself, ‘Stay calm. Stay cool and just put your first serve in’ — because I think my first serve today was very effective — which I did.”
A service break followed and Andreescu served out for the win, completing the victory with an overhead smash.
It was part of an impressive 5-0 Day 1 performance by Canadian players at Melbourne Park.
Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., and Vancouver’s Rebecca Marino posted straight-set victories in the morning draw. Felix Auger-aliassime of Montreal and Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., earned wins later in the day.
Shapovalov, the No. 11 seed, was pushed the distance by Italy’s Jannik Sinner, needing all five sets to complete a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4 win over the 19year-old Italian in nearly four hours.
Sinner, ranked 32nd, won an Australian Open tune-up event Sunday.
“It’s not a name you want to see in your draw in the first round,” Shapovalov said. “But, on the other side, for me, it was fun leading up to the match. When I saw it, I was like ‘OK, this is exciting.’ He’s in great form. I feel like I had two great matches the week before so I feel like I’m in form.
“I was excited for it and it lived up to the expectations. It was a long five-set match, which is literally what I expected.”
The 20th-seeded Auger-aliassime cruised to a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 win over German lucky loser Cedrik-marcel Stebe. Raonic, the No. 14 seed, dispatched of Argentina’s Federico Coria, 6-3, 6-3, 6-2, while Marino beat Australian wild-card entry Kimberly Birrell, 6-0, 7-6 (9).
It was Marino’s first Grand Slam appearance since 2013 and her first win at a major since ’11. She qualified for the event by winning three matches earlier this month.
“I hadn’t even thought about it being 10 years (since a Grand Slam win),” Marino said. “I’m obviously so, so pleased to come off with that win. To make it through qualifying and everything, really proud of myself and my fighting spirit. I don’t know what to say, I’m a little flabbergasted.”
Marino will face No. 19 seed Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in the second round. Shapovalov next meets Australian Bernard Tomic, Raonic gets France’s Corentin Moutet and Auger-aliassime squares off with Australia’s James Duckworth.
Seeded eighth in Melbourne, Andreescu appeared to get a favourable opening matchup in drawing the 138th-ranked Buzarnescu. But the veteran lefthander gave Andreescu all she could handle.
Andreescu looked like she hadn’t missed a beat in a tidy opening set. Her aggressiveness paid off early but Buzarnescu raised her game in the second set, going for more winners and forcing Andreescu into a more defensive posture.
However, Andreescu was poised in the decider and ramped up her play when needed.
Unforced errors were rather high for both players — Andreescu had 34 compared to 29 for her opponent — but the Canadian had a 27-11 edge in winners.
“I don’t want to be too hard on myself,” Andreescu said. “It’s my first match back. I’m just super-relieved that I was able to win today.”
Andreescu tore her left meniscus at the WTA Tour finals in October 2019. The injury hampered her in early ’20 and she declined to return when the WTA Tour resumed play after taking a break due to the pandemic.
Andreescu appeared quite comfortable on court in her return and seemed to be moving well. She mixed her shots up nicely to keep Buzarnescu off balance.
Andreescu, from Mississauga, will meet Taiwan’s Hsieh Suwei in the second round.
Ranked outside the top 150 prior to 2019, Andreescu won three tournaments that year and became one of the biggest stars in the sport. A win over Serena Williams at the U.S. Open made Andreescu Canada’s first Grand Slam singles champion.
After a two-week hard quarantine upon arrival in Melbourne, Andreescu pulled out of a warmup tournament last week on the eve of the competition. She decided instead to maximize her practice and training time for the first Grand Slam of the 2021 season.
Her coach, Sylvain Bruneau, watched Monday’s match from a front-row seat at a mostly empty John Cain Arena. Bruneau tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in Australia last month but said he’s feeling fine now.
Leylah Annie Fernandez of Laval, Que., and Vancouver’s Vasek Pospisil, the other two Canadians in the singles draws, were scheduled to play Tuesday.
The stadium was full of cardboard cut-outs and people in masks. A poet — yes, a poet — introduced us to some real heroes, and one of them handled the opening coin flip like she had done it 100 times before.
On the field, a woman joined the crew in stripes for the first time in a Super Bowl. Even the commercials reminded us — at times sombrely — that this was a season like no other in a time unlike any other.
Then Tom Brady took the field. And suddenly everything about the Super Bowl seemed normal once again.
There was Brady, playing pitch and catch with Rob Gronkowski like they were both still toiling in the snow in New England.
There was Brady, calmly throwing for a score to end the first half that turned out to be more than enough for a Tampa Bay team that was determined not to let Patrick Mahomes spoil their hometown party.
And there was Brady, celebrating a fifth Super Bowl MVP award and hoisting the Lombardi trophy for the seventh time.
Did anyone outside of Kansas City doubt this would be the way it would turn out? In a different uniform in a year where nothing else was even remotely as predictable?
Hardly, yet in a way it was oddly comforting to see. A season ending yet again with No. 12 sporting the biggest smile a 43year-old can muster and hugging everyone in his path.
The greatest of all time was meant for just this time.
“I think we knew this was going to happen tonight, didn’t we?’’ Brady asked his teammates in front of him at the trophy ceremony.
Maybe, but they probably weren’t prepared for the way it did happen.
Brady was Brady, of course, and on this night he was almost perfect. The game was pretty much decided in the first half, meaning there was no need for any last-minute heroics, and the smothering Buccaneers defence did what no one expected by keeping Mahomes out of the end zone all game long.
He’s had more exciting Super Bowl wins, sure. Indeed, Brady has had so many Super Bowl wins that the tendency is to try to rank them like they are not actually equal in value.
And, even if Brady wasn’t about to rate this one, he did acknowledge one thing: His team rose to the occasion when
it mattered most in a 31-9 win that was every bit as lopsided as the score indicated.
“We ended up playing our best game of the year,’’ Brady said.
Credit for that doesn’t just go to Brady, who simply needed to be good instead of spectacular on this night. The Tampa Bay defence chased Mahomes all over the field all night long, and Gronk came up big with two touchdown catches in the first half.
Bruce Arians did a masterful coaching job, as well, joining Brady in the old-timer’s club by becoming the oldest coach to win the Super Bowl at the age of 68 after spending a career on the sidelines in various capacities.
“I’d have to be smoking something really illegal to imagine something like this,’’ Arians said.
It was Arians who called out his new quarterback early in the year for an uneven performance, and Arians who saw the potential for the team even as the Bucs struggled in November. They would go on to win their final eight games, including three on the road as a wild card before heading home to finish it off against the Chiefs.
“We knew we’d be tough once we got in,’’ Arians said. “We just had to get in the playoffs.’’
Once in, Brady outplayed future Hall of Famers Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers — then spent the days before the Super Bowl urging his teammates to seize the moment against the Chiefs.
“He was texting us at 11 at night that we would win this game,’’ running back Leonard Fournette said. “We believed in him.’’
Hard not to believe when No. 12 is on your team, no matter the uniform colour. Brady didn’t need any more validation about his place in the history of the game, but he got it anyway with a playoff run for the ages — and the aged. He did what the greats all do, which is make the players around him better. No one wanted to be the player to let Brady down; no one wanted to get in the way of yet another Super Bowl ring.
“He is the greatest football player to ever play. I can tell my kids I played with that man,’’ Fournette said. “I’m just blessed.’’
They’re blessed in Tampa Bay, too, because Brady says he’s coming back for at least one more year. So is Arians, and this coach-quarterback combination figures to be as good once again as the one Brady left in New England.
For now, though, Tom Brady is a Super Bowl champion once again.
Just like normal.