Bianca Andreescu

Bianca Andreescu is a Canadian professional tennis player and the first player from her country to win a Grand Slam title.

Bianca Vanessa Andreescu was born on June 16, 2000, in Mississauga, Canada to Nicu and Maria Andreescu. Her parents are Romanian nationals who emigrated to Canada in 1994 and had no affiliation to sports.

Her father works as a mechanical engineer in Canada, while her mother worked as a banker in her native Romania before becoming a chief compliance officer for an investment firm in Toronto.

Andreescu moved back to Romania with her parents when she was six years old. A year after they resettled, Andreescu began playing tennis for the first time in Pitesti – a Romanian city located in river Arges.

During her stay there, she was coached by Gabriel Hristache, her father’s friend. After a couple of years in Romania, her family decided to return to Canada where Andreecu was nurtured into a highly successful junior player while training at the Ontario Racquet Club in Mississauga, her birth city.

She would then move to the U14 National Training Centre in Toronto, which is run by Tennis Canada. Andreescu won the Les Petits As and Orange Bowl, two high-profile junior tennis tournaments recognized by the ITF in her early teens.

Andreescu achieved a junior career-high ranking of No. 3, winning her first title at that level in 2014. Andreescu joined the ITF senior tour in 2015, playing her first events in Canada, and won her first ITF singles title the following season.

In 2017, Andreescu won two Junior Grand Slam doubles titles at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, respectively. Her first taste of the WTA Tour action was incidentally at Grand Slam level, where she qualified for the 2017 Wimbledon but lost in the first round.

Her first and second WTA main draw wins came just a few weeks later when she made the third round of the Citi Open in Washington. 2019 was seismic year for Andreescu. She reached her first WTA final in Auckland at the start of the season, losing to Julia Goerges.

But just a few months later, she won her first Tour-level title in Indian Wells, beating four Top 20 players in the process. She became the first women’s wild card to win the Indian Wells tournament.

It didn’t take Andreescu long to add to her trophy cabinet. She won the Canadian Open on her home turf, via a retirement, after 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams was forced to abandon the final due to an injury.

Andreescu reached her first Grand Slam final at the 2019 US Open. This time, a fit Serena Williams could not prevent her from winning the championship. Andreescu became the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam singles title.

Andreescu was recognized for her stellar season and accomplishments and received the Lou Marsh Trophy, a prestigious award that is voted for by a panel of journalists and granted to the top Canadian athlete every single year.

In 2019, Andreescu won it and became the first tennis player to win the award. Having started the season ranked outside the Top 100, Andreescu achieved a career-high mark of No. 4 in October of 2019.

Although injuries have hampered her progress since, Andreescu remains one of the most gifted tennis talents on the women’s, with the best years very much ahead of her.