NOW ACE BIANCA HAS CHEQUED IN
Teen star Andreescu railroads Williams
BIANCA ANDREESCU cashed her reality cheque at the US Open as women’s tennis hailed its brightest new star.
The Canadian, still only 19, stunned Serena Williams at Flushing Meadows to culminate one of the greatest rises in sport.
Andreescu walked out of the venue only 12 months ago as a tennis nobody, returning to anonymity – most believed – after losing a first-round qualifying match on court four.
But the teenager, born in Ontario to Romanian parents, didn’t just dream she would be a tennis superstar, she believed it with all her heart.
Three years previously she’d written her name and the prize money for winning the US Open on a mock cheque and on Saturday night she held it for real, all £3.1million of it.
She felled Williams, the sport’s ultimate warrior, 6-3 7-5 with a brand of tennis aggression that belied her years and lowly world ranking of 178 at the start of 2019.
Andreescu said: “After I won the Orange Bowl in 2015 I just thought I could do really big things in this sport. I grabbed a cheque and wrote the prize money of that year.
“But every year I kept increasing it because it kept changing. And I just kept visualising that moment since that day.
“Now being the actual champion is just so crazy.”
Records tumbled and were reset all around Flushing Meadows in the aftermath of the women’s final, although not the one the arena wanted to see as Williams failed to make it 24 Grand Slam wins and match the mark set by Margaret Court.
Andreescu became the first Canadian to win a Slam and the first teenager to win a major singles title since Maria Sharapova here in 2006.
She matched Monica Seles’ record of winning a major on only her fourth appearance in a Slam main draw and she’s on a run of 14 victories.
Andreescu’s bravery was typified when she won the toss and opted to receive in the first game, which she promptly won with the break.
Williams played as if burdened by the weight of history and although she rallied at 5-1 down in the second set, Andreescu struck her fierce forehand winner as if brandishing a sword.
The American rolls on to Australia next year in her pursuit of history.
She said: “I’m not necessarily chasing a record, just trying to win Grand Slams.
“I didn’t play my best against Bianca. I could have played better. That’s the only solace I can take right now.”