Last year’s US Open champion Bianca Andreescu was the big surprise of the 2019 season. The Canadian player born in 2000 won the Newport 125 k, Indian Wells, the Rogers Cup and the US Open. She withdrew from two matches against Andett Kontaveit in Miami and Sofia Kenin at Roland Garros, but she remained unbeaten from February to September 2019, when she was healthy enough to step on the court. At the WTA Finals Andreescu lost to Simona Halep and Karolina Pliskova due to a knee injury.
Andreescu talked about her breakthrough season during an interview to Steve Weissman and Tracy Austin on Tennis Live Channel.
“I think it was a build-up of everything I had done leading up to the US Open. Auckland really gave me a boost. I beat a couple of top players. Rogers Cup definitely helped me perform well at the US Open too, I had no pressure since I was coming back from a long injury”, said Andreescu to Tennis Live Channel.
Andreescu was planning to make her seasonal debut at Indian Wells, where she was aiming to defend her title. Unfortunately she was forced to pull out of the tournament before organisers cancelled the tournament in the Californian desert due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I was supposed to play at Indian Wells, but then something happened in practice and we thought it was better to wait instead. I would have been ready for Miami, so it’s just bad luck that all of this started during that time. I am taking this time to fully heal if it was not already 100%, even though I think it was”, said Andreescu.
Bianca is spending her lockdown at home trying to keep fit and remain motivated. The injury could be a blessing in disguise for Andreescu, who will have more time to fully recover
“It is not simple. I am trying to remain motivated and train hard in my small gym at home. I am spending a lot of time at home, playing with X-Box and I am reading a lot. I am trying to keep motivated and productive. I am taking this period to recover from the injury and get ready to make my return”.
Andreescu agrees with the idea of a merger between the WTA and the ATP.
“This would be a great opportunity to unite the world of tennis”.
Andreescu credits her calm approach to her daily meditation and visualization rituals.
“It’s called creative visualization. Picture yourself in a moment in the future, what you want a certain moment to look like. For me that was the US Open. I have been visualizing that since I was 15. It’s funny because I literally wrote myself a winner’s check for the year 2019. It’s mind boggling but it shows how effective this techinque is. The key is to actually feel yourself in that situation in the future”, said Andreescu.
