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US Open winner Andreescu: Unbending 19

2019-09-08T10:19:32.338Z


There are athletes who are driving their fear of losing. Unlike the 19-year-old US Open winner Bianca Andreescu. She defeated Serena Williams because she played like: Serna Williams. And she wants much more.



Bianca Andreescu did not yet know that the biggest moment of her young tennis career was not five minutes away.

The towel over your head, a final breather at the final change of page. The 19-year-old will probably not even have heard what was popping out of the boxes of the Arthur-Ashe Stadium: The chorus of a song by Icona Pop, "I do not care - I love it".

Bianca Andreescu, who was here in New York for the fourth time in the peloton of a Grand Slam tournament and equal to the final against the best tennis player ever, had reached the big Serena Williams, then trudged back on the court, as if no one could raise: not the frenetic US crowd, not the icon on the other side of the web. And what a pressure must have arisen after the nervous jitter in the second set of this final.

In the end Andreescu won - after a lead of 6: 3, 5: 1 - but only with 6: 3, 7: 5 won.

Watch the highlights of the game in the video:

Video

DPA

There are athletes who push the fear of losing, and there are guys like Bianca Andreescu, with an overwhelming desire to win.

From number 152 in the world to the US Open Champion

Just over two hours after her first Grand Slam title, she cried tears of joy in the press conference and reported how she had been dreaming of just that moment since her first major successes in 2014 as a junior. "It's crazy that all of this is going to happen," Andreescu said, "apparently these visualizations really help."

It was Andreescu started as number 152 in the world rankings in the season, had due to injury between March and August, only one match can deny. But then there were already two successes: She won the tournaments in Indian Wells and in Toronto. Now, at the US Open - in 2018 she had still failed the qualifier - she gave only two sets throughout the tournament.

On Saturday Andreescu beat Serena Williams because she played like Serena Williams.

Andreescu's serve and return were better, forehand more dangerous, nerves stronger. Their basic level is so high at the age of 19, the record of 8-0 victories against top ten players so good that Andreescu seems almost unbeatable. Unique already now: She is the first winner of a Grand Slam tournament born in this millennium.

AFP

Bianca Andreescu wants more of it

When Andreescu was born in June 2000, today's 37-year-old Serena Williams had already won the US Open for the first time.

Almost two decades later, Williams still played at the level of a Grand Slam champion in New York, the power and precision of her game is still amazing, but so was the weakness of her nerves in the final.

Williams lost her fourth Grand Slam final in a row and must continue to wait for the setting of the all-time record of 24 titles. So, in the end, there was a shake of the head in the press conference and the realization that she urgently needs support from a certain person: "I have to find out how to get that old Serena Williams back to Grand Slam finals."

"I think nobody likes my game"

Andreescu, in turn, seems to have found himself. "I do not think I've ever been as calm as I am now or even a year ago." Previously, they often hassled with themselves, had many negative thoughts in their heads. "I've smashed thugs, shouting at myself during the games." Therefore, Andreescu attributes much of her fable development to a mental discipline she has developed. And an unorthodox game: "I think nobody really likes it when I play my game, I play quite differently than others on the tour, I like changing the rhythm, it's always been my style and I'm going to keep it up work."

The fact that their US Open success does not have to be the only one was clear at the latest with this final. Afterwards Andreescu replied to the question whether this victory had made her hungry for more: "In any case, I love this feeling".

Source: spiegel

All sports articles on 2019-09-08

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