An Expert's Take on Canada's New Tennis Sensation

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AUGUST 31, 2019

Our Tennis Expert on Bianca Andreescu

By Ian Austen

Not long after she became the first Canadian to win the Rogers Cupin 50 years, Bianca Andreescu, the 19-year-old tennis prodigy from Mississauga, is making her mark at the U.S. Open. She has moved onto the third round and will play Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki on Saturday.

Andreescu during her second round match against Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium at the U.S. Open on Thursday.Mike Stobe/Getty Images

Christopher Clarey, a global sports reporter for The New York Times, is one of the world's authorities on tennis. He spoke to me from the U.S. Open in New York on Friday about Andreescu. Below are edited excerpts from our conversation.

For Canadians who don't follow tennis, Bianca Andreescu seems to have come out of nowhere. Is that really the case?

Not at all in this case. Tennis Canada has put together, over a number of years now, a really solid developmental program, I think that's been part of it.

But tennis is always, at some level, a little bit of a family story, too. And also a fair bit of an immigrant story as well, with her family being from Romania. Look at how many great players in tennis, and sports in general, come from families that have connections to a sport historically in their home countries. There's a passion for it and they apply that energy in their new country. There are a number of Canadian players with immigrant threads in their stories.

How do you define her style of play?

She is a wonderful all court player. Her game has been put in place obviously with great care and intelligence. I've watched her play probably 20, 30 matches and I don't think there's any shot she can't hit.

For a long time you could argue some of the shots in the game have been undervalued because it's been about baseline power and service power. Power is still essential to succeed, as is athleticism, but there's a new wave of players who are using all their court skills and a fuller range of shots.

Bianca can slice the back hand hit the drop shot, she can lean into the shots with power and she's got a really, really fine service motion. She's also a great athlete in the corners. She can defend.

Another Canadian tennis player Eugenie Bouchard initially started out strong but faded. How does Andreescu avoid that trajectory?

I don't want to demonize Bouchard, I don't know the whole story there. Bianca's big challenge is already very clear. She's had injury problems on a pretty regular basis in the last two years and she's only 19 years old. That's unsettling and certainly a cause for concern.

And the issues she's had, her back and then her rotator cuff injuries, those are not small things from a tennis perspective. They're not spraining an ankle or tearing a hamstring.

The big flag for her is managing her body and maybe she has to be very attentive to how much she trains and how much she plays.

She's already establishing herself as a top 10 player. And I think she has a chance to win Grand Slams sooner than later — she's that good. But she's going to have to manage the body.

And also I think, because she's coming from a country where there haven't been female grand slam champions, she's going to have to deal with a lot of attention. She needs a lot of focus and she'll have to keep her eye on the prize and be smart about how she manages her time.

She has a very engaging personality. She seems to like the contact with the press and the public, which is a good thing. But she's also going have to be smart about her choices.

But above all, for me, it's her body. What's happened to her this year is, in some ways, going to be a good cautionary tale. They'll realize they've got to be careful now.

Is Canada now seen as a serious tennis nation internationally?

In a lot of developed nations, the sport seems to be declining. In Canada, it seems to be rising. I think people are very much putting Canada in this emerging power category, let's put it that way.

Bianca Andreescu after defeating Serena Williams during the Rogers Cup tournament in Toronto.John E. Sokolowski/USA Today Sports, via Reuters

If you want to know more about Andreescu, I recommend two articles Chris wrote this past spring from the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Calf., which she won:

[Read: Bianca Andreescu Is Rising in the Tennis Rankings Ahead of Schedule]

[Read: Bianca Andreescu Completes a Stunning Run to the Indian Wells Title]

And you can follow our extensive coverage of the U.S. Open here.

Trans Canada

Altagracia Alvino, the grandmother of the Toronto Blue Jays' Vladimir Guerrero Jr., preparing her stewed goat dish to send to the ballpark.Tara Walton for The New York Times

—Altagracia Alvino is a cook with an unusual specialty: she feeds major league baseball players, especially ones from the Dominican Republic, when they're in Toronto. James Wagner paid a visit and found that she "may be the most popular and powerful grandmother in baseball."

—This week, Canada deported Yang Wei to China, Ian Johnson reported, after a court "brushed off concerns about his work as a dissident, saying there was no proof he would face incarceration if he returned." Mr. Yang had been arrested repeatedly, and had once stabbed a bus driver 13 times. But his supporters said that the incidents were caused by mental illness, and that Mr. Yang almost certainly faces brutal treatment in a Chinese jail because of his past.

—A camera entered the H.M.S. Terror and a time capsule of images emerged.

—This month in Canada, Netflix is streaming a new series starring Sacha Baron Cohen as a Mossad agent and the series "Criminal" about investigators and interrogation rooms that's set in four countries. Our monthly picks for Canadian viewers can be found here.

—The journalist, podcaster and author Malcolm Gladwell, a proud son of Elmira, Ontario, spoke with Amy Chozick about trust and human nature.

—Kevin McDonald, once of "The Kids in the Hall," has a one man show in New York, which Alexis Soloski, one of our critics, attended. "If you aren't an ardent 'Kids in the Hall' fan, little in the show, except for Mr. McDonald's frequent mentions of his passionate hatred of Winnipeg, will make much sense to you," she wrote. "Then again, if you aren't, you should be."

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A native of Windsor, Ontario, Ian Austen was educated in Toronto, lives in Ottawa and has reported about Canada for The New York Times for the past 15 years. Follow him on Twitter at @ianrausten.