Healthy Andreescu brims with confidence

Four months after returning to action from an extended break, Canadian tennis star Bianca Andreescu says her confidence is peaking heading into the final Grand Slam of the season.

The Mississauga, Ont., native enters this year’s U.S. Open, where she won her lone career Grand Slam in 2019, after a short but successful stay at the recent National Bank Open.

“I know that I can beat any player on tour right now,” Andreescu said before the tournament’s main draw, which begins Monday in New York. “I just really have to set my mind to it and just be in the right head space, to be honest. Like, I really believe in myself, in my capabilities. My biggest challenge is definitely myself right now.

“I definitely feel more confident right now than I have this whole year, which is so awesome for me to say because last year I was struggling a lot with that. So, coming into this hard-court swing, I’m feeling so much better.”

The 22-year-old Andreescu entered the National Bank Open in Toronto, an event she also won in 2019, having recovered from lower back pain she dealt with at the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose, Calif.

Though her back didn’t give her problems in Toronto, the need for recovery time cut into Andreescu’s preparation. Then she ran into a different issue in her first-round win over thenno. 9 Daria Kasatkina. In the 2½-hour, two-set win, Andreescu said “she was seeing double” during the tiebreaker in the first round and “felt really dizzy.” She was able to push through and said she hoped to build on her perseverance.

After following with a win over France’s Alizé Cornet, Andreescu eventually fell to China’s Zheng Qinwen in the third round.

“When you play higher ranked players and you do well against them, considering my ranking right now, (it) definitely helps,” said Andreescu, who is ranked 50th in the world. “I mean, Daria Kasatkina, she just came off a win (in the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic) and she had a lot of momentum coming into (the) tournament. So clinching that with everything I was going through during the match just showed me where my level is at right now and what I can accomplish.

“Even like my matches against Alizé, too. I lost to her twice and that was the third time we played, so it was kind of nice to kind of like get my revenge in a way. And obviously, my opponent after that, she played really well.

“I clinched that second set, so it just shows where my fighting spirit’s at and I’m very happy with it.”

With her back pain behind her, Andreescu has her eyes set on claiming her second Grand Slam.

“I definitely want to win the tournament, no questions asked. Every tournament I go into, I want to win it,” she said.