Bianca on the money as she slays Serena
TEENAGER ANDREESCU STUNS WILLIAMS TO WIN FIRST SLAM
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 in the final 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.
However the teenager, born in Ontario to Romanian parents, did not just dream she would be a tennis superstar, she believed it with all her heart.
Three years previously she had written her name and the prize money for winning the US Open on a mock-up cheque and on Saturday night she held it for sure, all $3.85 million of it.
She entered the coliseum of Arthur Ashe and 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 back in 2015 I felt I could do really big things in this sport.
“So I grabbed a cheque and wrote the prize money of that year.
“Every year I kept increasing it because it kept changing. But I just kept visualising that moment since that day.
“Now being the actual champion is just so crazy.”
Records tumbled and were re-set all around Flushing Meadows in the aftermath of the women’s final, although not the one the bear pit arena wanted to see as Williams failed to make it 24 slam wins and match the standard set by Margaret Court. Andreescu became the first Canadian to win a slam. She is also the first teenager to win a major singles title since Maria Sharapova here in 2006 and she matched Monica Seles’ record of winning a Major on only her fourth appearance in a Grand Slam main draw.
Williams, 37, 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 for the championship as if brandishing a sword.
Williams now rolls on to Australia next year in her pursuit of history.
It was the setting of her last slam success in 2017, before she took a break from the game to become a mother. She said: “I’m not necessarily chasing a record, just trying to win Grand Slams.
“I could have played better against Bianca.
That’s the only solace
I can take.”