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INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – At the 178 standings at the end of last season, Canada's Bianca Andreescu set an ambitious goal: to climb high enough to qualify for the main draw in the second round of this year. Grand Slam, the Open de France, in May.
Time for a new goal.
"So fast, as if everything was happening so fast!" She is exclaimed late Friday night by posing for an interview as a surprise finalist at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.
His run here at age 18 as a non-ranked wild card was a revelation, with a 6-0 and 6-1 demolition of former # 1 Garbiñe Muguruza in the quarterfinals and a 6-3 final 2-6 exuding and exhausting 6-4 win over Elina Svitolina, sixth seeded, in semifinal on Friday.
She is the first wild card to reach the final of this high level women's tournament. But his early success is not a stroke of luck.
It has a varied game all over the field and an accurate and sporty footwork to give the purists of tennis goose bumps. And his wide-eyed fighting spirit and out-of-court open personality should speak to a more general audience.
"She plays with a combination of freedom and intrepid determination. I hope that she will be able to stick to it, "said Sven Groeneveld, the experienced Dutch coach who helped Mary Pierce, Ana Ivanovic and recently Maria Sharapova win major titles.
For Andreescu, the next obstacle is daunting: Angélique Kerber, eighth seed, former champion of single and triple Grand Slam champion, in Sunday's final.
"In the third set against Svitolina, I said to myself:" I will stick to my tactics and go, "Andreescu said," That's what I did and that's what I've done for two This is the first time of my career on the circuit that I play against such high level athletes, so I really have nothing to lose, and in the end, I have nothing I'll just go and believe in myself, because anything is possible. "
Andreescu, born to Romanian parents in Toronto's suburb of Mississauga, is part of a new wave of gifted Canadian teens with flashy games, immigrant families and future Grand Slam titles .
It includes Denis Shapovalov, the 19-year-old with the one-handed backhand, ranked 25th in the men's game, and Felix Auger-Aliassime, 18, who turned heads at Indian Wells by reversing 10th. Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round.
It comes after Canada's Eugenie Bouchard placed in the top five at age 20, after a phenomenal year in 2014, including a race to the Wimbledon final. But Bouchard fell back quickly and was 73rd at the age of 25. Although she has shown signs of recovery, she is also a warning after struggling to cope with new expectations, even though her tennis skills are more limited than those of Andreescu.
Tennis remains an extremely competitive individual sport, where health, confidence and emotional balance can be precarious. Keeping Andreescu on the ground while his prospects are flying is the goal of his team, as well as his own goal.
"It's easy to get distracted," said coach Sylvain Bruneau, Tennis Canada's head of women's tennis. "But that will be part of my job to make sure she stays in the present moment."
Andreescu does her part on this front by spending 15 minutes each morning doing what she calls "creative visualization," imagining herself coping with the situations she will face on the court and off, so she can better equipped to handle them when they arise. Many elite athletes use visualization, including Mikaela Shiffrin, the world's best alpine skier.
But Andreescu said that it also has a calming effect.
"I was doing hours and hours, but I found that 15 minutes really helped me and it did not take much time," she said. "It's something I got online from a class. My mother introduced me at the age of 13 and I have been doing it ever since. "
Andreescu's parents immigrated to Canada in 1994. His mother, Maria, holds a master's degree in economics; his father, Nicu, is a mechanical engineer.
"We arrived in Canada with two suitcases, and that's all," Nicu Andreescu told The Globe and Mail. "We had a good first impression when we arrived, coming from an old communist country. We wanted to go to Canada and start a new life and have a better future for all the children we could have. "
Bianca is their only child and, although she developed her game under the umbrella of Tennis Canada, the governing body of the sport, she said she took her first tennis course at age 7 in Romania, where her mother was temporarily removed for a case.
This lesson was on clay and, although his family was soon reunited in Canada, Andreescu has maintained close ties with Romania. She speaks Romanian with her parents and attributes her fighting spirit to her "Romanian roots".
"I think it comes from my Romanian roots," she said. "I think every Romanian on tour has that. I think we are very passionate and we leave everything. It's all the heart. "
She showed great courage at Indian Wells and beat Irina-Camelia Begu from Romania 6 to 7 (3), 6-3, 6-3 in the second round. show the yard.
"In fact, I thought I was going to lose my first round because my departure was very slow," she said. "I was really nervous. I have never played at Indian Wells in such a big stadium. "
She also had back pain during this match, which is a recurring problem that still troubled her Friday night as she was changing places several times in her chair during an interview after the duel. with Svitolina.
"I have a lot of weaknesses in my heart, so it's definitely something that I'm improving, and it's definitely something that will help me in the future with d & # 39; 39, other injuries, "said Andreescu, who also missed a lot of time in court with a broken foot fracture.
Friday against Svitolina, she had to fight her way through leg cramps in the last set, in which she managed to convert her fourth match point by mixing lost shots and big bold ground moves in the last straight.
Although tennis stars are getting bigger, Andreescu is 5 feet 7 inches tall. But she has powerful legs that allow her to generate a great beat when she needs it, with her forehand and backhand, and jump high when she serves. His second serve, unlike many players of his size, is not a weakness.
But although she has a lot of power, it is her ability to change pace that is her signature. She can generate sharp angles with off-speed ground shots, looks comfortable in the forecourt and has a solid overhead, which she had to prove repeatedly against Svitolina, a prominent defender.
She uses all the canvas.
"I like that," she says about the description. "Nobody had ever said that about my game before, but that clearly describes it, I think. I like to hit every shot in the book. "
She is now 2-0 against the top 10 players after upset Caroline Wozniacki at a tournament in January in Auckland, New Zealand, where she also beat Venus Williams.
The victory over Williams lightened him to tears. "Venus is a living, living legend that breathes," said Andreescu.
But although the emotions were still strong Friday night, beating his elders quickly became a habit. Andreescu is now guaranteed to be in the top 35 on Monday and will be in the top 25 if she beats Kerber. Instead of just taking part in the Roland-Garros draw, she now has a good chance of being sown.
"I think I deserve to be here," she said. "But I did not expect it to come so fast, but I mean it's better sooner than later, no, so I can not complain, it's just crazy. I'm so grateful, I never want to take anything for granted. "
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