Bianca Andreescu’s breakthrough season hit yet another high note on Wednesday night as the Canadian ingenue came from behind to win 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 against Belgium’s Elise Mertens and become the first teenager in a decade to reach the US Open semi-finals.
The 19-year-old from Ontario, who attributes her mental fortitude to the meditation exercises she has practiced since she was 13, overcame a dialled-in opponent and sweltering conditions on another muggy night inside Arthur Ashe Stadium to reach the last four at Flushing Meadows on her main-draw debut here, joining Chris Evert, Pam Shriver and Venus Williams as the only women to do so.
This time a year ago Andreescu was ranked 208th in the world after a first-round loss in the US Open qualifying draw. But she has won 31 of 35 matches this season including 13 of 16 three-setters, roaring to the prestigious Indian Wells title in March, becoming the first Canadian in 50 years to win the Rogers Cup last month in Toronto and climbing to No 15 in the rankings.
Now she is the first teen to play this far into the US Open since Caroline Wozniacki’s run to the 2009 final and only the third Canadian woman in the tournament’s 139-year history to reach the semi-finals after Lois Moyes in 1909 and Carling Bassett in 1984. Not even this precocious only child of Romanian immigrants, it seems, could have visualized that.
“Is this real life?” the 15th-seeded Andreescu said after her tour-high 29th win on hard courts this season. “A year ago I was in the [US Open] qualifying round. I remember I was suffering from a back injury. Now what I’ve accomplished this year, I’m honestly speechless. I need someone to pinch me right now.”
The 25th-seeded Mertens, who had cruised into the quarter-finals without allowing more than three games in a set, was locked in from the jump and broke Andreescu in the fourth game of the opener before serving out the set in drama-free fashion as the Canadian struggled to suss out her timing.
But Andreescu, the first Canadian man or woman to play a US Open quarter-final since Patricia Hy-Boulais in 1992, showed the steely composure and taste for the fight that’s buoyed her through so many marathon matches all season, finding her range with the forehand, pinning the Belgian counter-puncher back with powerful groundstrokes belying her 5ft 7in frame and mixing in drop shots to keep her off balance. She broke Mertens twice in the second to force a third, then improved her first-serve percentage to 73% in the decider right when it seemed the conditions were wearing her down.
“She never gives up,” Mertens said. “Her serve was coming more in the second and the third set. She’s a good runner, gets the ball back, not a lot of mistakes.”
The players exchanged holds deep into the third before Andreescu finally broke in the eighth game with a crisp backhand winner down the line. When she finally closed the show with another clean backhand on match point after just over two hours for her 12th consecutive three-set win, the highest ranked teenager on the tour was overcome by disbelief.
“Elise, she played really, really well so I just tried to stay as calm as possible,” said Andreescu, who finished with 40 winners against 33 unforced errors. “I just told myself to stay calm and stick to the tactics, which I think really helped in the second and third set.”
Andreescu, who will crack the top 10 for the first time in next week’s rankings after finishing last year at No 178, advances to a Thursday showdown with 13th-seeded Belinda Bencic, another first-time major semi-finalist who came through earlier Wednesday with a straight-sets win over Donna Vekić.
“I think we are professional enough to be friends off the court but do our work on the court and stay focused,” Andreescu said of her forthcoming opponent. “I’m sure off the court we are still friends. I really like the challenge. Some players are maybe afraid of the big courts but for me it is more motivation. I am really enjoying my tennis.”
