WHAT HAPPENED: There was ample reason for the goosebumps.
Bianca Andreescu had finally returned to the site of her single greatest accomplishment on a tennis court, a 42-acre haven in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, where two years ago she became the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam singles title.
“It just brought me back to 2019,” she reflected earlier this week. “It’s nice to have those feelings.”
So much had happened to the Ontarian since that September night she overpowered the sport’s most powerful force, Serena Williams, in straight sets.
She had barely digested her big-stage breakthrough when she injured her left knee that fall in her WTA Finals debut, a setback that would cost her the entire 2020 campaign. She’d barely been back on the court this year when, facing Ashleigh Barty in the Miami Open final, she was forced into a mid-match retirement due to a foot injury. At her very next event on clay in Strasbourg, she pulled out of her quarterfinal with an abdominal strain.
Andreescu was kept out of Madrid and Rome after testing positive for COVID-19. Playing on home turf last month at the National Bank Open in Montreal, where she was the defending champion, she injured her toe in the third round against Ons Jabeur, dropping seven of the last eight games to fall in three sets.
Imagine the No. 6 seed’s delight on Thursday night when, healthy, confident and again striking the ball with authority, she punched a return ticket to the third round of the 2021 US Open, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over 98th-ranked American Lauren Davis. Yes, it’s a small sample size, but Andreescu remains unbeaten at the year-end Slam, where she’s now a spotless 9-0. Goosebumps? You bet.
“It feels really great. This match wasn’t easy. There were a lot of very close games. It was just a point here or there that really counted. I’m just super pumped,” said Andreescu, who a round earlier rallied from a break down in the third set to defeat Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic.
Davis appeared to shake the nerves early, sprinting out to a 2-0 advantage in the opener. But Andreescu would equalize and later take the set on a break of her own in the 10th game.
Andreescu struggled with her serve in the second set, twice surrendering breaks on double faults. But to her credit, the 21-year-old didn’t panic, stuck with her game plan and held on for the one-hour, 35-minute win.
In nine attempts, Davis has never ventured beyond the second round of her home-country Grand Slam. She fell to 5-12 lifetime against Top-10 opponents.
WHAT IT MEANS: Awaiting Andreescu in Round 3 is 104th-ranked Belgian Greet Minnen, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova earlier in the day.
Andreescu appears to be benefitting from her new alignment with coach Sven Groeneveld. “He always thinks long-term,” she explained. “We create short-term process goals, because I feel like I’ve been looking too much at results just because of how well I was doing in 2019. I have to tell myself, ‘I’m not the same person now that I was back then.’”
MATCH POINT: All three of Andreescu’s career titles have come on hard courts, all in 2019: Indian Wells, Toronto and the US Open.
