Yesterday, bianca Andreescu wrote about what Bianca Andreescu did during the year of The Gap Year, what she thought and what she wanted to achieve in the future, and today she continues to gallop on this "start-up" road.
On Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, she was the No. 8 seed against No. 28 seed Amanda Anisimova. It was the first meeting between the two sides in their careers. Despite playing three more sets, the Canadians won 2-1 to win the 2-hour and 40-minute battle to advance to the WTA Miami Mandatory Top Tournament Women's Singles Round of 16.
Both players are young people under the age of 21, and many people are paying attention to this game. In the first set, both sides played hard, and both had their own strengths before stealing seven sets.
The 19-year-old American girl played more decisively on key points, successfully saving 10 break points without letting her opponent break a set; the one-year-old Canadian firmly guarded her serve and did not give a single break point to the opponent. In the end, the No. 8 seed, who served better in the seven-set steal, won 7-4 with a small score.
At the beginning of the second set, Andreescu took advantage of the victory to chase and opened the game to break and take a 2-0 lead. It looks like everything is going in the direction of the two sets to end the fight, but if you're familiar with her style of play and character, you know it's a bit early to say so.
Sure enough, she successfully countered her opponent with a double mistake in her own serve, and the two exchanged another serve and entered the seventh after a 6-6 draw. This time it was Anisimova who won the seven-set tie, which equalized the score 7-2.
In the decider Andreescu regained her initiative again, with a total of 4 break points. She broke through the fourth break point in the 5th inning and officially headed the way to victory. After then fending off a counterattack from the 28th seed, she won the game 6-4.
A straight backhand shot at the match point, and Andreescu clenched his left fist to celebrate the victory. The team, which had been watching intensely from the sidelines, was also very excited, and four people, including coach Silvan Bruno, also high-fived each other.
It was an important game, and Bruno's nervousness was justified. And no one knows the disciple who has been working with since 2018 better than he did.
The "roller coaster style of play" is simply Andreescu's signature style of play, so much so that at this year's Australian Open post-Pg. Island Championship, the latter who reached the final four half-jokingly said at the press conference: "The coach saw that I was going to play three more sets, and he ... Know that I'm starting to find feelings. ”
Indeed, before the Miami Open, the 2019 US Open champion had only competed in two tournaments this season, the Australian Open and the Phillip Island Championship, with a record of 4 wins and 2 losses.
She played four three-set matches, 3-1, and the only victory she didn't play came in the third round of the Phillip Island Championship, when her opponent Zalina Díaz withdrew from the tournament due to injury after losing 1-6 in the first set.
Andreescu last appeared on the field was in the 2019 Shenzhen WTA Year-end Finals. She injured her left knee in the first round of the group stage against Karolina Pliskova and retired at 3-6. Still, she wrapped herself in a thick bandage to play in the second round of the group stage, losing to Simone Halep 6-3, 6-7, 3-6.
Looking back on the entire 2019 season, she won the Indian Wells Compulsory Top Championship, the Rogers Cup and the US Open. In these three top competitions, she is a proper "three-set diva".
In Indian Wells, she played seven games, playing three sets in the first and semi-finals, as well as in the final. In the semi-finals, she defeated Irina Svitolina 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 and in the final she defeated Angelico Kerber 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
In six games in the Rogers Cup, her final rival Serena Williams withdrew 1-3 with an injury. The other five complete matches in which Andreescu competed, with the exception of the semi-finals and Sophia Kenning, were won in two sets, the first four rounds were played in the decider: she and Eugenie Bouchard played 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 5-7 against Dalia Casakina 6-2, 7-5, 6-1, 6-7, 6-4 to beat Kiki Bertens, 6-0, 2-6, 6-4 against Karolina Pliskova.
At the Billy Jane King National Tennis Center, she was in good form and at the peak of her self-confidence, playing only two three-set matches, beating Taylor Townsend 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 in the fourth round and Alice Mertens 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the quarter-finals.
"Is this true? Is this a living reality? She exclaimed after winning the US Open, unable to believe the miracle she had created. Of course, this is reality, but she always wants to "add some material" to real life, and she can't stop playing three sets to make her team and supporters beat their hearts.
As for why she got used to it, it was probably because she grew up as an active-thinking girl who liked to experiment with different styles and refused to repeat work.
"I'm always interested in new things, from studying different opponents to being trained differently."
She and Bruno referenced the way a lot of male players played, and she was willing to make all sorts of attempts on the pitch, but as the coach put it, "sometimes it's good, but sometimes it gets her into trouble". Of course, as long as you win, everything is worth it and deserves to be forgiven.
On this point, Forbes magazine reporter Curtis Rush concluded: "This life is real, but Andreescu is not making it smooth. ”