Bianca Vanessa Andreescu (Romanian pronunciation:[andreˈesku]; born June 16, 2000) is a Canadian professionaltennis player. She has beenranked world No. 4 in women's singles by theWTA. Andreescu has won three singles titles, two on theWTA Tour, the2019 Indian Wells Open, the2019 Canadian Open, and amajor title at the2019 US Open. She is the first Canadian, male or female, to win a major singles title,[a] and the first to win the Canadian Open in 50 years.
Andreescu began playing tennis in her parents' home country of Romania before returning to Canada, the country of her birth.[4] She had success as a junior, winning theOrange Bowl and two major doubles titles with compatriotCarson Branstine en route to reaching a career-best junior ranking of No. 3 in the world. After not playing any matches at the WTA Tour level in 2018, Andreescu had a breakout year in 2019. She rose to prominence by winning the Indian Wells Open, a Premier Mandatory tournament, and later swept the Canadian Open and US Open events, defeatingSerena Williams in both finals. Although she missed several months due to injury, Andreescu qualified for theWTA Finals at the end of the season and finished the year ranked No. 5.
Andreescu's style of play combines power with variety and has been widely regarded as "fun to watch" by tennis commentators and journalists.[5][6][7] She has strong support from both Canadian and Romanian fanbases.
Bianca Vanessa Andreescu was born inMississauga, Ontario to Nicu and Maria Andreescu.[1] Her parents emigrated fromRomania to Canada in 1994 when her father accepted a job in the country. Andreescu's father works as a mechanical engineer at an automotive company, while her mother had worked at a bank in Romania. Her family moved back to Romania when Bianca was six years old so that her mother could start a business in their home country. After two and a half years, they closed the business and returned to Canada. Her mother has since worked as the chief compliance officer at a financial services company.[8] Andreescu began playing tennis inPitești at the age of seven. She was initially coached by Gabriel Hristache, a friend of her father.[9] When she returned to Canada, she trained at the Ontario Racquet Club in Mississauga before moving to the U14 National Training Centre in Toronto operated by Tennis Canada.[10] She began training more seriously at the age of 12.[11][12]
Andreescu had a career-high junior ranking of No. 3 in world, which she achieved in early 2016.[13] She had early success as a junior, winningLes Petits As, a prestigious 14-and-under tournament, in 2014.[14] She also won the 16-and-underOrange Bowl at the end of the year, becoming the fourth Canadian in a row to win that event.[15] Andreescu began playing 18-and-under events on theITF Junior Circuit in late 2013. She won her first titles in 2014, three in singles and one in doubles, at Grade-4 and Grade-5 tournaments, the two lowest levels.[13]
Andreescu moved up to higher-level events in early 2015, winning both the singles and doubles titles at the Condor de Plata tournament in Bolivia, her first Grade-2 tournament. She finished runner-up to compatriotCharlotte Robillard-Millette at the Open International Junior de Beaulieu-sur-Mer, her first Grade-1 tournament. Andreescu had less immediate success at the highest-level Grade-A tournaments, losing her opening round matches at her first four such events, which included the last three major events of the year.[13] Nonetheless, she defeated Robillard-Millette in their home country to win the Canadian Open Junior Championships during the summer, her first Grade 1 title.[16] Late in the year, Andreescu reached both the singles and doubles final at the Yucatán Cup, finishing runner-up toKayla Day in singles while winning her first doubles title at the Grade-1 level.[13] At her last tournament of the year, Andreescu defeated Day to win theOrange Bowl, her first Grade-A title. She was the first player to win the girls' under-16 and under-18 titles in back-to-back years sinceMary Joe Fernández in 1984 and 1985.[11][17] During the season, Andreescu also represented Canada at theJunior Fed Cup with Robillard-Millette and Vanessa Wong. Andreescu and Robillard-Millette lost the decisive doubles rubber in the semifinals against the Czech Republic. However, they recovered to win both of their singles rubbers against Russia to take third place.[18] Andreescu was named Outstanding Junior Female by Tennis Canada at the end of the year.[19]
Andreescu had more success at the Grand Slam tournaments in 2016, but did not win any titles in singles or doubles at any level. As the top seed at theAustralian Open in both singles and doubles, she withdrew from both events after two matches each because of recurring injuries involving her leftadductor and right ankle, as well as a stress fracture in her foot.[20][21] These injuries kept her out for six months.[22] Andreescu returned to competition atWimbledon, where she lost in the third round. At theUS Open, she had her best run at a major event to date, reaching the semifinals in singles where she lost to Day.[23] The last two junior events of Andreescu's career came in 2017 at the Grand Slam tournaments. She matched her best Grand Slam result in singles at theAustralian Open, where she was defeated byRebeka Masarova in the semifinals. She then made it to the quarterfinals of theFrench Open at her last singles event, losing toClaire Liu. Nonetheless, Andreescu won the major doubles titles at both of these tournaments withCarson Branstine. The pair defeated the Polish team ofMaja Chwalińska andIga Świątek in the Australian Open final,[24] and the Russian pair ofOlesya Pervushina andAnastasia Potapova in the French Open final.[25] With their French Open title, Andreescu and Branstine became the first Canadian team to win a major girls' doubles title.[b][27][28][29][30]
Andreescu began playing on theITF Circuit in July 2015.[31] She finished runner-up to No. 155Alexa Glatch in her professional tournament, a 25k event inGatineau. She was givenwildcards into qualifying at the Canadian Open in2015 and2016, but was unable to qualify. Andreescu missed most of the first half of 2016 due to injury.[20] When she returned, she had success at ITF events in Canada. She won her first ITF titles in singles and doubles at the August 2016 event in Gatineau, winning the doubles with junior rival Robillard-Millette.[32] In October, she finished runner-up in both the singles and doubles events at the higher-level 50kChallenger de Saguenay, again partnering with Robillard-Millette. During the singles event, she defeated No. 113Jennifer Brady in a third-set tiebreak in the semifinals, before losing to No. 111,CiCi Bellis, in the final.[33][34]
Andreescu won two more 25k titles in early 2017, which helped her break into the top 200 of theWTA rankings.[31][35] After losing in qualifying at theFrench Open, she was able to qualify for the main draw atWimbledon. She lost her Grand Slam debut to No. 105Kristína Kučová.[36] Later in the month, she was awarded a wildcard into the main draw of theWashington Open. She defeatedCamila Giorgi in the opening round, her first win on the WTA Tour. In her next match, she upset world No. 13,Kristina Mladenovic, to advance to the quarterfinals, where she lost toAndrea Petkovic.[37][38] A few weeks later, she made herCanadian Open main-draw debut as a wildcard entrant, losing to No. 55Tímea Babos.[39] Andreescu entered qualifying at theUS Open, but lost her opening match. In the last stage of the season, she had more success in doubles. She reached her first WTA final in doubles with compatriotCarson Branstine at theTournoi de Québec. They finished runners-up to top seeds Tímea Babos andAndrea Hlaváčková.[40] She then partnered with compatriotCarol Zhao to win the doubles title at the $60kChallenger de Saguenay.[31] Andreescu's best ranking during the year was No. 143, and she finished the season at No. 182.[35]
Andreescu did not play any tour-level matches in 2018. She entered qualifying for all four majors, but did not qualify for any of them. She came the closest at theFrench Open andWimbledon, falling one match short at both. Andreescu played primarily at the 25k level, reaching four finals. She had two runner-up finishes in April and two titles late in the season. One of her best results at higher-level events was a quarterfinal at the 100kMidland Tennis Classic. She also reached the semifinals of the 60kChallenger de Granby, where she withdrew due to a back injury.[31] This injury kept her out of theCanadian Open. After attempting to qualify at theUS Open, she did not return to competition until late October.[41] Andreescu's two late-season titles helped her finish the year at No. 152 in the world.[35]
Despite entering the year having not played a WTA Tour match in over 14 months, Andreescu had a breakthrough season that took her from well outside the top 100 into the upper echelon of women's tennis. She began the season by qualifying for the main draw at theAuckland Open, where she made her first WTA Tour singles final. During the tournament, she upset top seed and world No. 3,Caroline Wozniacki, and defeated three top 40 players, before finishing runner-up to defending champion and second seed,Julia Görges.[42][43] She also qualified for theAustralian Open and won one match againstWhitney Osuigwe, her first win in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament.[44] Before the end of the month, Andreescu won a WTA 125 title at theNewport Beach Challenger.[45] With these three results, she rose from No. 152 at the start of the year to No. 107 after the Auckland runner-up, to No. 68 after the Australian Open and WTA 125 title, a large enough ascent to become Canada's top-ranked player on the tour.[35][46]
Andreescu continued her hot streak with a semifinal at theMexican Open.[47] She then had an even larger breakthrough at the Premier MandatoryIndian Wells Open, where she won her first career title. Andreescu defeated four top 20 players in the last four rounds, including No. 6Elina Svitolina and No. 8Angelique Kerber in the semifinals and final, respectively, both in three sets. She became the first wildcard women's singles champion in tournament history and was the first 18-year-old to win the event sinceSerena Williams in 1999.[48] This title also took her to No. 24 in the WTA rankings.[49][50] Andreescu defeated Kerber again at theMiami Open a week later. However, she then suffered a right shoulder injury in the fourth round of the event that forced her to retire from the match.[51][52] Andreescu's injury kept her out of all but one tournament until August. She attempted an early comeback at theFrench Open, but ultimately withdrew after one match.[53] Andreescu made her next return at her home tournament, theCanadian Open, where she won her second high-level Premier tournament of the year. She won her first four matches in three sets,[54] including the last two over top-ten opponents in No. 5Kiki Bertens and No. 3Karolína Plíšková. She defeated tenth seed Serena Williams in the final, who needed to retire due to back spasms down 1–3 in the first set. With these three top ten victories, Andreescu improved her record against top ten opponents to 7–0 to open her career. With the title, she moved up to No. 14 in the world. She also became the first Canadian to win the tournament sinceFaye Urban in 1969.[55][56]
Bianca Andreescu poses with her coach, Sylvain Bruneau, and a USTA official following her press conference, after winning the 2019 US Open title at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York.
Andreescu's best result of the year came at theUS Open, where she won her first major title. She advanced to the final without facing a top-ten opponent, with her biggest wins coming against No. 19, Caroline Wozniacki, in the third round and No. 12Belinda Bencic in the semifinals. Her opponent in the final was again Serena Williams. Andreescu defeated Williams in straight sets to win the title.[57] She became the first Canadian tennis player to win a major singles title, and the first teenage major singles champion sinceMaria Sharapova won the2006 US Open. She also became the first player to win the US Open in their main-draw debut, and was at the time tied withMonica Seles for being the quickest to win a major singles title by doing so in her fourth main-draw appearance, a record since broken byEmma Raducanu.[58] She also rose to No. 5 in the world.[35] Andreescu's 17-match win streak was ended in the quarterfinals of theChina Open by No. 4Naomi Osaka, which was also her first career loss against a top-ten opponent.[59] She reached a career-high ranking of world No. 4 on 21 October, making her the highest ranked Canadian woman in the history of the WTA.[60] She closed out the year at theWTA Finals, where she withdrew after two losses toSimona Halep and Plíšková due to a knee injury.[61] At the end of the season, Andreescu was awarded theLou Marsh Trophy as Canada's top athlete of the year. She was the first tennis player to win the award.[62]
Andreescu missed the first few months of the 2020 season, including theAustralian Open, due to her knee injury. She was unable to defend her title at theIndian Wells Open until the tournament and the next several months of the season were canceled due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[63][64]
Andreescu returned to competition for the first time in 15 months at the2021 Australian Open, the first major tournament since her run at the 2019 US Open.[65] Seeded eighth, she opened with a three-set victory overMihaela Buzărnescu in the first round but then was upset byHsieh Su-wei in straight sets.[65] She also participated in thePhillip Island Trophy, another new event in Australia, where she lost in the semifinals toMarie Bouzková.
Bianca tested positive for COVID-19 on April 25, 2021, and was forced to withdraw from the Madrid Open.[66] She went into theFrench Open as the sixth seed, however she was upset in the first round byTamara Zidanšek.
She went into theWimbledon Championships as the fifth seed and was upset in the first round in straight sets, this time byAlizé Cornet. She then went on to withdraw from theTokyo Olympics and returned to action at theCanadian Open, as the defending champion. There, she lost toOns Jabeur in the third round.[67]
Seeded sixth at theUS Open, she reached the fourth round but lost to Maria Sakkari in a three and a half hour battle that ended after 2AM, making it latest women's singles match in tournament history.[68] Because she did not defend her 2019 title, she fell to No. 20 in the rankings. AtIndian Wells, she was also the defending champion but lost in the third round toAnett Kontaveit.[69] As a result, she finished the year at No. 46 in the singles rankings.
Andreescu missed many big tournaments in the first three months of 2022, including the Australian Open, Indian Wells, and the Miami Open due to her injury.
InRome, she won her first-round match after Emma Raducanu retired. Then she defeated lucky loserNuria Párrizas Díaz and qualifierPetra Martić to reach her first WTA 1000 quarterfinals since the2021 Miami Open. She lost to world No. 1 and eventual champion,Iga Świątek.
At theFrench Open, she reached the second round defeating qualifierYsaline Bonaventure but lost in straight sets to Belinda Bencic.
InBerlin, Andreescu started her grass-court season, and participated in both disciplines. In singles, she played two tough matches against Czech players, beatingKateřina Siniaková in three sets but losing in the second round to top 10 player Karolína Plíšková, in three sets.In doubles, Andreescu partneredSabine Lisicki who was on comeback trail after severe injury. They beat in two sets Chinese pairXu Yifan andYang Zhaoxuan, in the next round the battle was in three sets against the third seedsAsia Muhammad andEna Shibahara. However, they easily lost in the semifinals against the top seedsStorm Sanders and Siniaková.
She won her first match atWimbledon defeating qualifierEmina Bektas in 55 minutes.[73] In the second round, Andreescu lost to eventual championElena Rybakina, in straight sets.[74]
At theSilicon Valley Classic, she lost toShelby Rogers in two sets, although Andreescu was visibly struggling with a back injury throughout the match.[75] At theCanadian Open, Andreescu reached the third round after defeating Alizé Cornet. In the third round, she lost toZheng Qinwen in three sets.[76] At theUS Open, Andreescu lost in the third round to Caroline Garcia, in straight sets.[77]
InMiami, she reached the fourth round defeating Emma Raducanu, seventh seed Maria Sakkari for her first top-10 win for the season, andSofia Kenin. She suffered a gruesome ankle injury in the fourth round againstEkaterina Alexandrova and had to be taken off the court in a wheelchair.[78]
At theFrench Open, she reached the final in mixed doubles as alternate pair withMichael Venus with a win over compatriotGabriela Dabrowski and AmericanNathaniel Lammons.[79] In singles at the same tournament, she reached the third round but lost toLesia Tsurenko, in straight sets.[80] AtWimbledon, she reached the third round for the first time in her career, defeatingAnna Bondár and 26th seedAnhelina Kalinina. In the third round, she fell to back-to-back finalist Ons Jabeur.
She returned to the WTA Tour, after nine months of hiatus at the2024 French Open, where she entered using protected ranking,[81] and reached the third round with wins overSara Sorribes Tormo[82] and 23rd seed Anna Kalinskaya[83] before falling to eventual finalistJasmine Paolini.[84]
At the beginning of the grass-court season, competing as a wildcard at theRosmalen Open, she also won two matches and reached her first grass quarterfinal since 2022, with wins over Dutch qualifierEva Vedder,[85] and sixth seedYuan Yue.[86][87] Next, she defeated fellow wildcardNaomi Osaka to reach her first WTA Tour semifinal since 2023 Hua Hin and her first on grass since 2022 in Bad Homburg.[88][89] She reached the final defeating qualifierDalma Galfi, before losing to second seedLiudmila Samsonova.[90][91]
Andreescu lost to fifth seed Jasmine Paolini in the first round at theUS Open, the third successive Grand Slam tournament that she had been knocked out by the Italian.[96]
2025: Catalonia doubles title, Italian Open fourth round
Andreescu missed the first three months of the 2025 season due to injury and illness including having emergency surgery to remove her appendix.[97] She returned to competitive action in April at theRouen Open, losing toSuzan Lamens in the first round.[98]
Having led Canada to third and fifth places at the Junior Fed Cup in 2015 and 2016 respectively,[18][104] Andreescu made her seniorFed Cup debut in 2017 when Canada was in the third-tierAmericas Zone Group I. In this group, they needed to finish first in their round robin pool, win a tie against the other round robin pool winner, and then win another tie in the play-off round to get promoted to the second tier the following year. Canada achieved all three of those objectives in 2017. They first swept their round robin pool ofParaguay,Bolivia, andVenezuela, with Andreescu winning all five of her rubbers without dropping a set. Canada then defeatedChile, the winners of the other round robin pool, asKatherine Sebov and Andreescu won the two singles rubbers to clinch the tie.[105] In theWorld Group II play-offs, Canada facedKazakhstan. Andreescu andFrançoise Abanda were selected to play singles. After Andreescu lost her opening singles rubber to No. 31Yulia Putintseva, Abanda won both of her singles rubbers. Andreescu then clinched the tie for Canada with a win against No. 51Yaroslava Shvedova, the highest-ranked player she defeated to date. As a result, Canada earned promotion to World Group II in 2018.[106]
Canada were drawn againstRomania in the2018 World Group II. They lost the first three singles rubbers and the tie, with Andreescu losing the second rubber to No. 37Irina-Camelia Begu.[107] Canada facedUkraine in theWorld Group II play-offs. Although Andreescu lost her only singles rubber to No. 40Lesia Tsurenko,Eugenie Bouchard won both of her singles rubbers to help set up a decisive doubles rubber. Andreescu andGabriela Dabrowski won the doubles match in three sets overKateryna Bondarenko andOlga Savchuk to clinch the tie for Canada and keep them in World Group II for the following year.[108] In 2019, Andreescu won both of her singles rubbers as Canada swept theNetherlands 4–0 to advance to theWorld Group play-offs.[109] Due to a shoulder injury, she missed the next tie againstCzech Republic. Although Canada were swept 0–4 in this tie, the change in the Fed Cup format announced a few months after the tie allowed them to advance to the qualifying round for the top-tier Fed Cup Finals in 2020.[110][111]
Andreescu employs a wide variety of shots into her style of play that is set apart by the level of power she incorporates into her game.Martina Navratilova in particular has 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 [former world No. 1]Martina Hingis, but with more power."[112] One of the keys is to her style of play is having good shot selection, which she excelled at in particular when she won her first career WTA title at the2019 Indian Wells Open.[112] She rarely hits two shots in a row in the same way,[48] and her opponents can find it difficult to read her shots.[113] The power and variety in her style have received wide praise as both entertaining and effective. Former world No. 1Tracy Austin,Sportsnet Canada, andThe Wall Street Journal all have stated she is "fun to watch".[5][6][7] Gerald Marzorati ofThe New Yorker declared, "For me, this kind of play is tennis."[48]
Andreescu has multiple options with herforehand, including hitting it flat, with slice, or with heavytopspin to push her opponents further back behind the baseline.[48][114] She also has multiple options with her two-handedbackhand, and is capable of hitting it flat at sharp angles, with power, or one-handed with slice.[48] Andreescu can hit large numbers of winners, most of which are typically from the forehand side. She hit 19 winners in the2019 US Open final[115] and 44 in the 2019 Indian Wells final, 37 of which were forehand winners.[114][116] Andreescu frequently incorporates well-disguiseddrop shots to change pace and keep her opponents out of rhythm. She also can hit moonballs on occasion for the same purpose.[48][112][114] Following a loss to Andreescu at the 2019 US Open, Caroline Wozniacki likened her style to that ofKim Clijsters, one of Andreescu's childhood tennis idols, saying "I think because [Andreescu] moves well and she can stretch out and get to some balls and also play the aggressive and using the angles. Obviously she prefers the forehand just like Kim... But she can move around the backhand and put the angle on it."[117]
Nathalie Tauziat, one of Andreescu's junior coaches
Andreescu began playing tennis under Gabriel Hristache in Romania.[9] When training with Tennis Canada at the U14 National Training Centre, she worked with Lan Yao-Gallop for two years starting at the age of twelve. Yao-Gallop, who played professionally for five years, remarked that Andreescu always played with power, but initially lacked control.[12] Andreescu also worked with Aref Jallali at this time.[8] Later on at the age of fourteen, she was coached byNathalie Tauziat and André Labelle, both of whom also worked with Tennis Canada. Tauziat is a former French professional player who was ranked as high as No. 3 in the world and finished runner-up at Wimbledon in 1998. She served as Andreescu's primary coach at the time and focused on having her improve at taking the ball early, which Andreescu viewed as having an immediate impact on her success as a junior player. Labelle travelled from Montreal to Toronto so that Andreescu did not need to leave home to train.[20][118] In March 2018, Andreescu switched from Tauziat to Sylvain Bruneau, another Tennis Canada coach, so that she could have a full-time traveling coach.[118][119] In 2024, Andreescu appointed her hitting partner of three years, J.T. Nishimura, as coach.[120]
Andreescu is supported by both Canadian and Romanian fans due to herRomanian heritage. She has said, "I've definitely got a lot of love from all the Romanian media, which is nice. It's nice to have two fan bases, Canada and Romania".[121] Andreescu lived in Romania for two and a half years as a child. She speaks fluent Romanian, and she travels with her parents back to Romania annually to visit the rest of her family.[122] She was raised in part by her Romanian grandparents.[8][123] Andreescu has stated she did not have a favorite tennis player while growing up.[11] However,Simona Halep has been her favorite player at times due to the two having a similar style of play and also because she is Romanian. Andreescu has said she tried to model her game after that of Halep.[10] She first met Halep at the2016 Canadian Open, where Halep advised her to turn professional.[124] Andreescu also stated she looked up toKim Clijsters and the Williams sisters.[117][125]
She has been regularly practicing a form of meditation calledcreative visualization since she was 12 years old. She also practicesyoga. She has said, "I don't only work on my physical aspect. I also work on the mental, because that's also very, very important. It's definitely showing through my matches where I'm staying in the present moment a lot of the time. I don't like to focus on what just happened or in the future." While she used to practice creative visualization for a few hours a day, she has since limited this type of meditation to 15 minutes per day due to her busy schedule.[48][126] Andreescu's former coach Aref Jallali credited her mental fortitude to her mother, while another of her former coaches attributed her ability to manage stress to her father.[8]
Bianca is nicknamed Bibi.[127] Her middle name of Vanessa was inspired by American actress and singerVanessa Williams.[20]
Bianca's dog Coco, aPoodle, is an occasional addition to her box. During her US Open success, Coco was allowed into the venue.[128]
^Canadian-bornMary Pierce won two major singles titles while representing France.[3]
^Branstine represented the United States at the Australian Open and Canada at the French Open, having switched federations in-between the two tournaments.[26]
^abcMcIntyre, Mike (Spring 2016)."A Glimpse into the Future".Ontario Tennis. Ontario Tennis Association. Archived fromthe original on March 29, 2019. RetrievedJune 20, 2016.