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Bianca Andreescu - Miami Open 2023
Tennis News, US Open Tennis, WTA Tennis Players

Former US Open champion reveals that she had ‘so much hatred’ towards the sport


Bianca Andreescu has explained just how bad things got during her mental health break, with the 2019 US Open champion revealing that she now has ‘hope’.

Andreescu stormed to the top of the sport back in 2019 as a teenager, winning WTA 1000 titles in Indian Wells and Toronto, before beating Serena Williams to claim her maiden Grand Slam title at the US Open.

This success enabled Andreescu to become the highest ranked Canadian woman in history at world No.4.

However, it has not been so plain-sailing for Andreescu since then, with injuries and mental health issues forcing her to take time away from the sport.

And in an exclusive interview with The Tennis Podcast, Andreescu has detailed just how bad things got during her mental break back in 2022, “When I was injured, it was more when I had my mental time off where I really didn’t know if I wanted to come back. I just, I felt so much hatred towards it.”

Despite Andreescu’s admission that she did not know whether she would ever return to the WTA Tour, the now 23-year-old appears to be looking at the sport with a greater perspective.

“It’s all how I look at it. Like it’s the perspective of the why me mentality that kind of brought me to that point, because tennis is so beautiful,” said Andreescu. “It’s brought me so much it’s such a privilege to play the sport and be a professional athlete. I know it’s not all glamorous.”

In more recent times it has been a back injury that has kept Andreescu on the sidelines, keeping the No.228 out of action for nearly 10 months until Roland Garros.

It was at the Paris major where Andreescu beat Sara Sorribes Tormo and 23rd seed Anna Kalinskaya to match her best ever result at the tournament, before succumbing to a third round loss to eventual finalist Jasmine Paolini.

After achieving this result, Andreescu spoke about her newfound hope in life and the sport, “10 months ago I had no idea when I would be able to compete again. To be back so soon with what I dealt with is a dream!!! I finally feel something I haven’t felt in a long time… hope.”

Andreescu has continued this hope into the grass court season, after reaching the quarter-finals at the Libema Open this week.

The Canadian will look to further that later today when she plays fellow major winner Naomi Osaka, in their first meeting in nearly five years.

Inside the baseline…

Tennis is a brutal, brutal sport and it is great to hear Bianca Andreescu being so open about her experiences since winning the US Open. Although becoming a major champion is such an incredible thing, it almost sounds like Andreescu was a victim of her own success and that instant rise to stardom was too much to handle at the time. However, thankfully the Canadian seems to be in a much better place now and hopefully she can stay fit for what could be a very exciting second half to 2024 for her!

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Matthew Johns, Tennishead Writer, is a professional tennis journalist with a specialist degree in Sports Journalism. He's a keen tennis player having represented his local club and University plus he's also a qualified tennis coach. Matthew has a deep knowledge of tennis especially the ATP Tour and thrives on breaking big tennis news stories for Tennishead.