Five years later, Andreescu looks to recreate US Open magic

Bianca Andreescu opened up about the challenges she's faced since winning the 2019 US Open in a piece published on The Players' Tribune this week. 

"It was kind of like a therapy session with the person who helped me write the article," the 24-year-old from Mississauga, Ont. told TSN. "My goal is to be an inspiration in any way that I can and I felt that telling my story in a bit more of an in-depth way can help. It's good timing as well. It's the five-year mark of my win."

When Andreescu defeated Serena Williams to become Canada's first singles Grand Slam champion it felt like only the start of her rise. Instead, it was the start of a different type of journey. Felled by injuries and insecurity, Andreescu has not made it past the fourth round of a major since that Big Apple breakthrough. 

"I've been through a lot injury-wise specifically and that, in turn, helped me learn to love myself more and take care of my body and my mind," she said. "Whatever has happened within the last five years I wouldn't change it for the world because it's made me who I am today. And I'm happy to say that I do love myself."

After winning titles at Indian Wells, Toronto and the US Open in 2019, expectations rose as Andreescu's body wore down. Meanwhile, her emotional well-being became tied to her results on the court. The COVID pandemic only added to the stress and late in 2021 things reached a breaking point with Andreescu deciding to take a sabbatical from the WTA Tour. 

"I'm obviously still the same person in a way," she said. "I just feel like I've grown and I've learnt a lot. Some of my values have changed, and just the respect I have for myself and the self love has been the major thing."

At her lowest moment, Andreescu revealed in the Players' Tribune that she went out of her way to read "hateful" messages on Instagram, including death threats. 

"It's like I wanted to feel worse," she wrote.

Now, she limits what she sees on social media and is better able to tune out negativity. 

"I've defined success as being happy in your own skin and being your most authentic self," Andreescu said during a news conference at the National Bank Open. "If people don't like it, I don't really give a s--t anymore."

Injuries have continually slowed Andreescu's momentum. Last summer she sustained a stress fracture in her back, which led to a nearly 10-month absence. Andreescu returned at Roland-Garros in late May and made the third round before bowing out to eventual finalist Jasmine Paolini. 

Andreescu then made the final of a grass-court event in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands before reaching the third round at Wimbledon where she once again ran into Paolini, who beat her en route to another final. 

Andreescu made her long-awaited Olympic debut back on the red clay of Roland-Garros in July, losing in the second round to eventual silver medallist Donna Vekic. 

The busy schedule and rapid fire surface changes seemed to catch up with Andreescu despite a return to her favoured hard courts this month. She issued a tearful apology to her hometown fans after losing her opening match in Toronto against Lesia Tsurenko. She also dropped her first-round match in Cincinnati against lucky loser Elina Avanesyan. 

"It definitely hasn't been easy," admits Andreescu, who is now 9-7 this season. "I did make that decision to play the Olympics knowing it wouldn't be an easy transition based on not having many days to train on hard, but I did the best that I could. Obviously I haven't been having the results that I want, but I know my game is there. My fighting spirit is there and it's just trying to get all the puzzle pieces together. There's still a lot of the year left so I'm very excited about what I can do on the hard courts."

The US Open draw did her no favours as Andreescu, a wildcard entry currently ranked 169th, will once again face Paolini, the No. 5 seed.

"She loves to get her revenge," Andreescu's coach, J.T. Nishimura, noted during a recent interview. "She feels she can beat anybody in the world and she's always confident." 

The highly-anticipated first-round match between Andreescu and Paolini will be played at 7:00 p.m. ET on Tuesday inside Louis Armstrong Stadium. 

"Bianca's been playing unbelievable tennis," stressed Canada's Billie Jean King Cup captain and Olympic coach Heidi El Tabakh in an interview following Andreescu's loss in Toronto. "She's been hitting the ball as good as ever, really. I'm excited for her summer. I know she's playing her best tennis."

Andreescu knocked out seeded opponents at both the French Open (No. 23 Anna Kalinskaya) and Wimbledon (No. 26 Linda Noskova), and playing in New York clearly suits her. 

"It feels amazing," she said. "It's surreal to think that it was five years ago, but I always have amazing memories and nostalgia coming back, so I'm hoping to bring a little bit of that magic into the air."

Andreescu is 12-2 in her three previous appearances at the US Open. She's never lost before the third round at Flushing Meadows. 

Andreescu describes herself as "super spiritual" and actually structured her Players' Tribune piece as a three-stage meditation with sections titled Body, Awareness and Release. 

Andreescu is a big believer in the power of manifestation. What is she visualizing on the eve of the season's final major?

"I'm seeing my body be completely healthy," Andreescu said. "That's my No. 1 thing in a lot of the visualization meditations that I do. And then lifting up the US Open trophy. I try not to do that every day. I manifest once and feel all those feelings."

Andreescu sees herself shaking the hand of her opponent, looking up to see her family and supporters in the crowd, and then lying on her back on the court as the roar of the crowd washes over her. 

"It's definitely a very powerful meditation," she said. "It brings back good memories and hopefully I can make new ones."