News
Sports
Tennis

Bianca Andreescu, U.S. Open finalist, By The Numbers

Matt Zemek Sep 6, 2019
|Andreescu -- https://crier.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/USATSI_13312768-e1567777186246.jpg

It is endlessly amazing to contemplate what Bianca Andreescu has already become at age 19, earning the distinction of being the first teenager to make the U.S. Open women’s final since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009.

The U.S. Open used to be a haven for teenage sensations. In fact, 20 years ago, when Serena Williams won her first U.S. Open and her first major singles championship, three of the four semifinalists were teenagers. Serena was 17, Venus Williams was 19, and Martina Hingis was 18. Yet, a lot of words seem less impactful than statistics and facts, on the eve of a blockbuster U.S. Open women’s final against Serena Jameka Williams. I will have an Andreescu essay after the women’s final, and then a commentary next week to put her larger identity in perspective.

For now, simply absorb the amazing facts surrounding this force of nature:

A few words about teenagers in women’s tennis are merited, as the tennis world prepares for a showcase match between Bianca and Serena:

The rise of Coco Gauff at age 15 — and the urgent discussion that ascendance has created about the need to manage her schedule and not overexpose her to the main professional tennis circuit — has reminded a lot of women’s tennis observers that the quality of teenage players hasn’t decreased. At the very least, the topic of teenage stars can’t be viewed in a linear fashion because of new rules put in place to limit the activity of younger teenage players on tour.

If you are at least 40 years old, you recall the 1991 U.S. Open women’s semifinals, when two teenagers, Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati, crushed the tennis ball in a riveting, explosive, high-octane matchup which heralded the future of the sport.

Both players won multiple major champions. Seles, had she not been stabbed, could have become a more successful major champion than Steffi Graf. The Seles-Graf rivalry could have become the 1990s version of Chris Evert versus Martina Navratilova.

A reminder about Evert and Navratilova:

Capriati’s case, however, is more instructive. Capriati was only 15 years old on that semifinal day in New York. She had an overbearing tennis parent who did not give her space to grow into a well-rounded human being. Her life was imbalanced and careened into a ditch on multiple occasions.

Capriati is one of a few central reasons why the WTA age rule limits exist. This has made it harder to compare today’s teenagers to those from the 1990s and previous decades (such as Tracy Austin and Evert herself, who both rose to prominence well before turning 20).

Teenagers are rightly protected more by the modern WTA Tour, shielded against the effects of “too much, too soon.” Given that context, Bianca Andreescu’s continued ability to laugh at “too much, too soon,” with this avalanche of wins and wins and more wins, is positively remarkable.

We will see if she can win one more match on Saturday, with the whole world watching, against Serena Williams.

Matt Zemek

Matt Zemek has written about tennis professionally since 2014 for multiple outlets. He is currently the editor of tennisaccent.com and the co-manager of Tennis With An Accent with Saqib Ali. Tennis With An Accent blends Saqib Ali's podcasts with written coverage of professional tennis. The TWAA Podcast hosted Darren Cahill earlier this year. The podcast is distributed by Red Circle and is available on Stitcher, Google Podcasts, and Apple Podcasts. See Matt's pinned tweet on his Twitter page for links to the TWAA Podcast. Matt is based in Phoenix and thinks the Raptors winning the NBA title was awesome. Saqib will be covering Montreal for Tennis With An Accent.

Subscribe Now!

Which newsletters would you like to receive?

Yes! By providing my email address, I agree to receive communications from Crier Media (this can be changed at any time). Please take a look at the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for more details.

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Related stories