First things first: At the WTA Finals, the year-ending, eight-player championship of women’s tennis, you need to expect the unexpected. Bianca Andreescu knows this.

You might respond by saying, “Matt, women’s tennis is unpredictable throughout the year.” That is a true statement. Yet, the WTA Finals have been a particularly volatile tournament in recent years.

This year, the WTA Finals will be held in Shenzhen, China, for the first time, after a five-year run in Singapore. Could a new location change the tenor of the event? The playing surface in Singapore was a gritty, slow hardcourt, which gave more time to return- and defense-oriented players. We will see what Shenzhen brings, but in the meantime, this tournament has shown that being a higher-ranked player means nothing.

In this eight-player event, the last four WTA Finals championships have been won by a player seeded 5 through 8. In 2015, the No. 5 seed — Agnieszka Radwanska — won. In 2016, the No. 7. seed, Dominika Cibulkova, triumphed. In 2017 and last year, the No. 6 seed — Caroline Wozniacki two years ago, Elina Svitolina in 2018 — lifted the trophy.

In each of the last two years, a top-four seed hasn’t even made the final.

Bianca Andreescu @WTAFinals: "It's like you're playing the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam right away.

"I think it's going to be a good match, Petra and Naomi. Then me and Simona, I've always wanted to play her. I'm finally getting my chance. I'm really excited." pic.twitter.com/S6peJvQ0XP

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) October 26, 2019

The WTA Finals take the unpredictability of women’s tennis to a whole new level. If you are predicting a champion for this event, know that you are stepping into very uncertain territory.

Yet, if you were to predict one player to survive the three round-robin group-stage matches and reach the semifinals next weekend, Bianca Andreescu would probably be the best choice. I have no idea who will win this championship, but if one player made a lot of sense as a semifinalist — more than anyone else — it’s Andreescu.

Here are the two four-player groups for the 2019 WTA Finals in Shenzhen:

Combined H2H vs. Group

Red Group:
Barty: 4-6 (1st meeting vs. BB)
Osaka: 4-5
Kvitova: 8-4
Bencic: 4-4

Purple Group:
Pliskova: 8-11 (3-7 vs. Halep)
Andreescu: 2-0
Halep: 11-7
Svitolina: 7-10#WTAFinals

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) October 26, 2019

There are no easy matches here. Keep in mind that dumb pundits such as myself thought Elina Svitolina had basically no chance at last year’s 2018 WTA Finals… which she then won. I thought that playing in Svitolina’s group last October was a good thing… but then she caught fire. So, take all of this with a grain of salt.

Yet, it remains that Karolina Pliskova and Simona Halep have struggled in the second half of the 2019 tennis season. Svitolina has been a much better player in the second half, but Andreescu quite clearly has a bigger, more imposing game than Svitolina does.

Bianca Andreescu avoided Naomi Osaka’s group. Osaka beat Andreescu in Beijing and looks very formidable right now. Andreescu also avoided World No. 1, Ashleigh Barty, and the always-dangerous Petra Kvitova, whose firepower remains a hard code to crack in a high-stakes situation. Belinda Bencic gave Andreescu a very tough match in the U.S. Open semifinals. Andreescu won’t have to worry about her in the group stages, either.

When the media keep telling you you're the oldest player in the draw 😩 next question please!#WTAFinals @WTAFinals pic.twitter.com/HfcUQYhKJS

— Petra Kvitova (@Petra_Kvitova) October 26, 2019

If you were to have created a tournament draw which was favorable to Bianca Vanessa Andreescu, this is it. As she enters her first WTA Finals, she has a chance to make one more resounding statement at the end of 2019. A championship in Shenzhen would make her the player to beat at the 2020 Australian Open — or at the very least, the player everyone WANTS to beat even more than anyone else in the field.

The fun thing about this event for Andreescu is that after her ridiculous amount of success as a teenager this season, a loss would hardly be cause for concern. She has already exceeded expectations and boundaries by such a large margin that a loss here would be shrugged off as, “Okay, so what? I already got so much more than I could have imagined out of this season. On to 2020.”

Yet, for a player who has already set the bar so high, it would be fully in character for Bianca Andreescu to raise the bar even more.

That’s who she is as a tennis player. It’s what she does.

Let’s see what will be served up in Shenzhen. The table is ready for Bianca Andreescu.