الأحد، 1 سبتمبر 2019

Bianca Andreescu

Bianca Vanessa Andreescu (Romanian pronunciation: [andreˈescu]; born June 16, 2000) is a Canadian professional tennis player. She reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 14 on August 12, 2019, as ranked by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), and a career-high combined junior ranking of No. 3 on February 1, 2016, as ranked by the International Tennis Federation (ITF). On August 11, 2019, Andreescu became the first Canadian woman to win the Canadian Open since Faye Urban in
Early life
Andreescu was born in Mississauga, Ontario, to Romanian parents.[3] Her father, engineer Nicu Andreescu, had accepted a job in Canada shortly after his graduation from Transilvania University of Brașov.[4] Her mother, who graduated from the University of Craiova, would later become chief compliance officer of Global Maxfin Investments Inc. in Toronto.[5][6]

She started playing tennis at age 7 in Pitești, under Gabriel Hristache, when the Andreescu family moved back to her parents' native Romania.[3][7] A few years later, the Andreescus returned to live in Canada, where Bianca trained at the Ontario Racquet Club in Mississauga.[3] When she was 11 years old, Andreescu joined Tennis Canada's National Training Program in Toronto and started getting more serious about her career. Her childhood idol was Kim Clijsters.[8] Subsequently she has had other favourite players, including Simona Halep.[3] She also admired the Williams sisters.[9]

At the 2016 Rogers Cup, Andreescu was advised and encouraged by Halep to turn professional.[10]

Tennis career
2014: Junior success
In January, Andreescu won Les Petits As, one of the most prestigious 14-and-under tournaments in the world.[11] In July, she won her first junior titles, taking the singles title at the Grade 5 tournament[a] in Havana,[12] and the doubles title—partnered with Maria Tănăsescu—at the Grade 4 tournament in Nassau the following week.[13] She won her second and third junior singles titles in the fall at the Grade-5 tournament in Burlington[14] and the Grade-4 tournament in Lexington.[15] Andreescu ended her season with the under-16 title at the Orange Bowl with a straight sets win over Dominique Schaefer, becoming the fourth straight Canadian after Erin Routliffe, Gloria Liang and Charlotte Robillard-Millette to win that event.[16]

2015: ITF debut
Andreescu began the season by winning both the singles and doubles titles at the Grade-2 tournament in La Paz.[17] Two weeks later at the Grade 2 tournament in Córdoba, she captured her third junior doubles title.[18] At the French Open, Andreescu qualified for her first junior Grand Slam, but was defeated in the first round in girls' singles—by the eventual runner-up, Anna Kalinskaya—and in the second round in girls' doubles.[19] At Wimbledon, she was once again eliminated in the first round in girls' singles and in the second round in girls' doubles.[20] At her first professional tournament, the ITF 25K in Gatineau in August, Andreescu advanced to the final with wins over No. 429 Elizabeth Halbauer, No. 288 Barbora Štefková, No. 206 Shuko Aoyama and No. 275 Victoria Rodríguez. She was defeated by No. 155 Alexa Glatch in the final.[21] In early September, she won her first junior Grade 1 title with a victory over compatriot Robillard-Millette in Repentigny.[22] She lost in the opening round of the US Open girls' singles event.[23] In December, at 15 years of age, she became the first Canadian since Gabriela Dabrowski in 2009 to win the Under-18 Orange Bowl, a Grade-A tournament.[24] She became the first to win the under-16 and under-18 titles in consecutive years since Mary Joe Fernández in 1984–85;[24] Chris Evert is another to perform the feat.[25]

In 2015, Andreescu began working with former world No. 3 Nathalie Tauziat, who previously coached Eugenie Bouchard. Tauziat described Andreescu: "She can do many things, she has good hands and she's a very powerful girl. ... She has big goals and she is doing many things to reach these big goals."[26] Andreescu was named the 2015 Outstanding Junior Female by Tennis Canada.[27]

2016: First career title
At the Australian Open, Andreescu was the top seed in both girls' singles and doubles.[1] She advanced to the third round in singles and doubles before withdrawing from both because of recurring injuries including her left adductor, right ankle, and a stress fracture in her foot.[1][28] The injury kept her from competition for six months.[29] She returned to play in the Wimbledon girls' singles event as the sixth seed, but lost in the third round.[30] At the Gatineau 25K tournament a month later, Andreescu claimed the first professional title of her career with a straight sets victory over Elizabeth Halbauer. Andreescu also won the Gatineau doubles title with compatriot Charlotte Robillard-Millette.[31][32] At the US Open in September, Andreescu had her best run so far at a junior Grand Slam, reaching the semifinals in singles and the quarterfinals in doubles.[33] At the 50K in Saguenay in October, she reached the singles and doubles finals.[34] Two weeks later at the 50K Tevlin Women's Challenger, Andreescu made it to the quarterfinals in singles and the semifinals in double
In January at the junior event of the Australian Open, Andreescu advanced to the semifinals in singles and won the doubles title with Carson Branstine.[36] In February in Rancho Santa Fe, she captured her second 25K singles title with a straight sets win over Kayla Day.[37] She won the 25K in Santa Margherita di Pula over Bernarda Pera in early April.[38] At the junior French Open, she reached the quarterfinals in singles and captured her second straight Grand Slam doubles title with compatriot Carson Branstine. She also competed in the senior event, losing in the qualifying first round to former world No. 57 Tereza Smitková.[39] At Wimbledon, she qualified for her first senior main draw but was defeated by Kristína Kučová in the opening round. At the Citi Open in August, Andreescu was awarded a wild card for the main draw where she defeated Camila Giorgi in the opening round, her first win on the WTA Tour. In her next match, she upset world No. 13 Kristina Mladenovic, becoming the first player born in the 2000s to beat a top 20 player.[40] She was defeated by Andrea Petkovic in three sets in the quarterfinals.[41] The next week at the Rogers Cup, she was awarded a wild card in the singles main draw where she was defeated by world No. 55 Tímea Babos in the opening round.[42] In the doubles main draw, she upset, with fellow Canadian Carson Branstine, the team of Kristina Mladenovic and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round. They lost to the first seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the second round.[43] At the Coupe Banque Nationale in September, she advanced to the second round with a victory over world No. 65 Jennifer Brady, but was defeated by Lucie Hradecká.[44] In doubles, with compatriot Branstine, she reached her first WTA final, losing to the first seeds Tímea Babos and Andrea Hlaváčková.[45] In October at the 60K in Saguenay, she won with compatriot Carol Zhao her second doubles title.[46]

2018: Steady performance, injury woes
In April, Andreescu advanced to the final of the 25K in Kōfu where she lost to the first seed Luksika Kumkhum.[47] The next week, she lost in the final of another 25K event in Kashiwa, again to Kumkhum.[48] She played Fed Cup for Canada in April in Montreal and won the deciding doubles match with her fellow team mate Gabriela Dabrowski to advance to World Group II. Later, a bad back forces her out of tournaments until November.[49]

2019: Two Premier titles
At her first event of the year, at the ASB Classic in Auckland, Andreescu qualified for the main draw. She then beat the first seed Caroline Wozniacki, the sixth seed Venus Williams, and the third seed Hsieh Su-wei en route to reach her first WTA singles final[50] where she was the runner-up to the defending champion and second seed Julia Görges.[51] At the Australian Open, she qualified and progressed to the main draw when Tereza Smitkova retired in the final round of the qualifying match.[52]

Andreescu won her first WTA 125K title at Newport Beach in January.[53] The win took her to a career-high ranking of No. 68. She also passed Eugenie Bouchard to become Canada's top-ranked player.[54] In February, she reached the semifinal of the Mexican Open, losing to Sofia Kenin.[55] With this result, Andreescu reached a new career-high ranking as No. 60.[56]

Andreescu had a breakout tournament at the Indian Wells Premier Mandatory event. She started slowly with a three-set victory over Irina Camelia Begu, followed by straight-sets wins over 32nd seed and former top-five player Dominika Cibulková, qualifier Stefanie Vögele and 18th seeded Wang Qiang to reach the quarterfinals in her Premier Mandatory debut. She dismissed former world No. 1 and two-time major champion Garbiñe Muguruza in straight sets to become the third wild card to reach the semifinals of the tournament, joining Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters.[57] She then defeated the sixth seeded Elina Svitolina in three sets to make it through to the final, becoming the first wild card to reach the finals in Indian Wells history. In the final, she won in three tight sets over Angelique Kerber for her first tour victory. This victory also vaulted her ranking to 24, a new career-high.[58]

In the following Miami Open, Andreescu drew Begu in the first round again. She staged a comeback win from a double break in the second set, saving a match point in the process. In the second round, she revenged Acapulco loss to Kenin to set up another meeting with Kerber. After losing the second set from a break up, Andreescu defeated the world No. 4 for the second time in as many meetings.[59] In the fourth round, she played against 21st seed Anett Kontaveit, where Andreescu lost the first set and was forced to retire at the start of the second set due to a right shoulder injury, putting an end to a ten-match winning streak.[60]

After a gruelling first three months of the season, Andreescu was forced to miss most of the clay season to heal her right shoulder injury. [61] She did come back for the second Grand Slam of the year at the French Open, playing as the 22nd seed. After beating 2014 Junior US Open champion Marie Bouzková in a tough three set battle, she withdrew before the second round match against Sofia Kenin.[62] Subsequently, she has missed grass-court season to spend more time healing the shoulder injury.[63]

Andreescu returned to play in her home tournament, the 2019 Rogers Cup in Toronto, where she defeated two former top-ten players in fellow Canadian Eugenie Bouchard and Daria Kasatkina, and two current top-ten players in Kiki Bertens and Karolína Plíšková, each in three sets. In the semifinal she played Kenin for the third time in the season, and beat her in straight sets. Before the final match, Andreescu had been on the court 10 hours 54 minutes, the most time of any player in the event. In the final, Serena Williams experienced back spasms and was forced to retire down 1–3 in the first set.[64] This gave Bianca her second WTA title, and a new career-high ranking of 14.[2] With the three top-ten wins at the tournament, she has won her first seven matches against top-ten opponents\
Several media outlets, including Tennis.com and Sportsnet Canada, have labeled Andreescu "fun to watch," with many citing a combination of variety and power within her game.[65][66][67][68] In a commentary on Andreescu, Martina Navratilova noted, "Everyone knows how to bang the ball; it's when you bring something extra to the table that it makes all the difference. And Andreescu brings a lot of extra to the table. Think the variety (almost) of Martina Hingis, but with more power."[69]

Andreescu typically employs aggressive cross-court strokes, often finishing the point with an inside-out forehand or a drop shot near the net.[70] She is also noted for her use of high balls to draw short replies that are vulnerable to attack.[70][71] In addition, she commonly uses slices and drop shots near the baseline to bring opponents forward and set up lobs or passing shots.[72] In an editorial for Last Word on Tennis, David Gertler found that Andreescu's opponents "find it hard to figure out whether she will paint the line with a powerful shot, resort to a wicked slice or deploy a deft drop shot."[67]

While assessing Andreescu's game, Gerald Marzorati of The New Yorker declared, "For me, this kind of play is tennis."[72]

National representation
In 2014, Andreescu teamed with Maria Tănăsescu and Brindtha Ramasamy to represent Canada at the World Junior Tennis event, an international team championship for boys and girls aged 14-and-under. Andreescu went 3–2 in singles matches and went 2–1 in doubles matches, as Canada finished seventh overall.[73]

She teamed with Robillard-Millette and Vanessa Wong to represent Canada at the 2015 Junior Fed Cup finals (for girls 16-and-under) in Madrid. Andreescu went 5–0 in singles matches and went 4–1 in doubles matches, leading Canada to a third-place finish.[74]

At the 2016 Junior Fed Cup, Andreescu teamed with Isabelle Boulais and Layne Sleeth to represent Canada. Andreescu went 4–1 in singles matches and went 4–0 in doubles matches,[75] leading Canada to a fifth-place finish.[76]

In 2017, Andreescu was selected to represent Canada at the Fed Cup Americas Zone Group I, along with Charlotte Robillard-Millette, Katherine Sebov and Carol Zhao. She had a 6–0 overall record, 4–0 in singles rubbers and 2–0 in doubles rubbers, without losing a set in the four ties played. Canada ended Round Robin in first place and won the promotional playoff over Chile.[77] Andreescu was once again selected to play the next tie against Kazakhstan in the Fed Cup World Group II Play-offs. She lost her first match to world No. 31 Yulia Putintseva but won her second over world No. 51 Yaroslava Shvedova, her biggest win to date. Canada went on to win the tie 3–2 and secured its place in the World Group II in 2018.[78]

In 2018, Andreescu played in the first of the World Group II with Gabriela Dabrowski, Sebov and Zhao against Romania. She lost her singles match to world No. 37 Irina-Camelia Begu and Canada went on to lose the tie by the score of 1–3.[79] In the World Group II Play-offs, Andreescu lost her singles match to world No. 40 Lesia Tsurenko, but won the deciding doubles with Dabrowski to help Canada stay in the World Group II in 2019.[80]

In January 2019, she helped Canada overcome the Netherlands 4–0 in Fed Cup World Group II, beating Richèl Hogenkamp and Arantxa Rus in the singles, in what Tennis Canada called "a perfect performance". Canada will meet the Czech Republic in the World Group Play-offs in April 2019.[81]

Personal life
Andreescu lives in Toronto. Her middle name—Vanessa—was inspired by actress and singer Vanessa Williams.[1] Due to the time spent on court, Andreescu completed her high-school diploma online at Bill Crothers Secondary School in Unionville.[25] She is nicknamed "Bibi" and speaks Romanian fluently.[6] Bianca was raised by her two Romanian grandmothers in Canada

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