The world has case of Bianca fever
Teen’s ranking has risen exponentially, both on and off the court, in 2019
A sports needle-mover in the truest sense, Canadian tennis star Bianca Andreescu has enjoyed a stunning rise on the WTA Tour. The country and the world have joined her for the ride.
Andreescu’s ranking has risen exponentially in her breakout 2019 season. The television ratings have been huge and the increase to her social media following is just as eye-popping.
The 19-year-old Mississauga native had a modest 12,600 Instagram followers at the end of 2018, when she was ranked 152nd in the world and still looking for her first WTA title. She added 58,000 followers in March after her breakthrough win at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calif. Her Rogers Cup crown last month in Toronto helped boost her total to more than 197,000. And Andreescu’s recent U.S. Open title and the media blitz that followed rocketed that number to 644,000 and counting.
Mike Naraine, an assistant professor with Brock University’s department of sport management, said Andreescu has picked her spots nicely with social media posts, helping her build a strong brand with a growing base of supporters.
“It allows her to draw upon a new base of partners,” Naraine said. “They look at her and say, ‘Wow, there is this new demographic that’s young, that’s hip, that’s very active in the sports community. We can leverage her visibility as a strong Canadian female star to develop our product.’ ”
Andreescu already has anchor sponsors in Nike, BMW, Head and Rogers. A spokesman for Octagon, the sports and entertainment agency, said Andreescu is expected to make announcements on two new major sponsors over the coming weeks.
“It’s a great journey so far but hopefully only the beginning,” her agent, Jonathan Dasnieres de Veigy, said from Paris.
Andreescu, ranked fifth in the world, will return to the court this weekend at the China Open in Beijing, facing the 51stranked Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus in the first round. It will be her first tournament since she beat Serena Williams in the U.S. Open final three weeks ago. She pocketed$3.85 million (U.S.) for that win and made high-profile television appearances on “The View,” “The Tonight Show” and “Good Morning America.
Andreescu seems just as natural, comfortable and grounded as a Grand Slam champion as she did nine months ago when she was battling through qualifying draws and playing lowertier tournaments.
“She’s well poised,” Naraine said. “It’s almost as if she’s been training for this her whole life. We don’t necessarily see that with a lot of youth athletes.”
Dasnieres de Veigy credits the “full team” around Andreescu that keeps her focused. “We really want to be careful on that,” he said. “Our vision is very longterm. We truly believe that it was not a one-time thing but just the first step of maybe a long career. That’s what we really want for her.” Andreescu had a modest 4,000 followers on Twitter at the start of the year; that total is now pushing 190,000. She has the most mentioned Canadian athlete account of 2019, ahead of NBA prospect R.J. Barrett and NHL player Brad Marchand.
“Very few Canadian athletes have ever seen such a surge in Twitter conversation within a calendar year,” Twitter Canada communications head Cam Gordon said in an email.
The television ratings for Andreescu’s 6-3, 7-5 win over Williams were off the charts. Numeris data showed an average audience of 3.4 million viewers watched the match, making it the most-watched tennis broadcast ever on TSN and RDS. The audience peaked at 5.3 million viewers for match point, or about one in seven Canadians.