Bianca Andreescu

Bianca Vanessa Andreescu (born 2000) is a Canadian professional tennis player. She turned pro in 2017, and is currently ranked number 22 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA,) and number 3 by International Tennis Federation (ITF.)

Bianca was born on June 16, 2000 in Mississauga, Ontario. She is the only child of her parents, who were born in Romania and migrated to Mississauga, Ontario in 1994. Her father, Nicu Andreescu, is a tooling engineer in Canada and her mother, Maria Andreescu, is a chief compliance officer of Global Maxfin Investments Inc. in Toronto, Canada.

When Bianca was 6, she and her mother moved back to Romania for her mother’s trucking business, while her father continued to live and work in Canada. It was in Romania that Bianca was introduced to tennis at the age of 7. She started working with a professional coach in Pitești, Romania. She and her mother moved back to Canada for good when Bianca was 9.

Back in Canada, she played tennis at the Ontario Racquet Club in Mississauga. By the age of 10, she joined Tennis Canada’s Regional Training Centre in Toronto, training there three times a week, before or after school. She cites Romanian tennis player Simona Halep and Belgian tennis player Kim Clijsters as her favorite tennis players.

Because she was dedicated to playing tennis, she completed her high-school diploma online at Bill Crothers Secondary School in Unionville, Markham, Ontario.

In February 2014, when Bianca was 13, she became the third Canadian behind Gabriela Dabrowski and Edward Nguyen to win Les Petits As in France. The same year in July, she won her first singles title at the Grade 5 tournament in Havana, and also the doubles title, partnering with Maria Tănăsescu, at the Grade 4 tournament in Nassau the following week. 

The same year, she won the under-16 title at the Orange Bowl, becoming the fourth straight Canadian after Erin Routliffe, Gloria Liang and Charlotte Robillard-Millette to have won that event.

In 2015, Bianca won both the singles and doubles titles at the Grade-2 tournament in La Paz, Bolivia, and in Córdoba, Spain.

At the French Open, Bianca qualified for her first junior Grand Slam, but was defeated in the first round in girls' singles by Anna Kalinskaya.

At Wimbledon, she was once again eliminated in the first round in girls' singles and in the second round in girls' doubles.

At her first professional tournament, the ITF 25K in Gatineau, Canada, in August, Bianca lost to Alexa Glatch in the final, after having defeated Elizabeth Halbauer, Barbora Štefková, Shuko Aoyama and Victoria Rodríguez.

In September, she won her first junior Grade 1 title by defeating Charlotte Robillard-Millette in Repentigny, Canada. She lost in the opening round of the US Open girls' singles event.

In December 2015, she became the first Canadian since Gabriela Dabrowski in 2009 to win the Under-18 Orange Bowl, a Grade-A tournament. She became the first to win the under-16 and under-18 titles in consecutive years since Mary Joe Fernandez in 1984–85.

Bianca was named the 2015 Outstanding Junior Female by Tennis Canada.

Bianca began training with former world No. 3 Nathalie Tauziat, who previously coached Eugenie Bouchard. Tauziat described Andreescu:

She can do many things, she has good hands and she's a very powerful girl. ... She has big goals and she is doing many things to reach these big goals.

In 2016, Bianca claimed the first professional title of her career with a straight sets victory over Elizabeth Halbauer at the Gatineau 25K tournament. She also won the Gatineau doubles title with Charlotte Robillard-Millette.

At the US Open in September 2016, Bianca reached the semifinals in singles and the quarterfinals in doubles at junior Grand Slam. In October 2016, at the 50K tournament in Saguenay, she reached the singles and doubles finals.

At the 2016 Rogers Cup, Romanian tennis player, Simona Halep, encouraged Bianca to turn professional.

In January 2017, at the junior event of the Australian Open, Bianca advanced to the semifinals in singles and won the doubles title with Carson Branstine.

In February in Rancho Santa Fe, she won the 25K singles title after defeating Kayla Day. She won the 25K in Santa Margherita di Pula by defeating Bernarda Pera.

At the junior French Open, she reached the quarterfinals in singles and captured her second straight Grand Slam doubles title partnering with Carson Branstine.

She competed in the senior event, but however, she lost in the qualifying first round to Tereza Smitková.

At Wimbledon, she qualified for her first senior main draw but was defeated by Kristína Kučová in the opening round.

At the Citi Open in August, Bianca registered her first victory at the WTA Tour by defeating Camila Giorgi in the opening round. Defeating Kristina Mladenovic in her next match, she became the first player born in the 2000s to beat a top 20 player. She was defeated by Andrea Petkovic in three sets in the quarterfinals.

The next week at the Rogers Cup, she was awarded a wild card in the singles main draw where she was defeated by Tímea Babos in the opening round. In the doubles, she and Carson Branstine defeated Kristina Mladenovic and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the first round. They lost to the first seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the second round.

In September 2017, at the Coupe Banque Nationale, she defeated Jennifer Brady, to reach the second round, however, she lost to Lucie Hradecká in the finals. In doubles, she and Carson Branstine reached their first WTA final, but lost to Tímea Babos and Andrea Hlaváčková.

In October at the 60K in Saguenay, she and Carol Zhao won the second doubles title.

She continued her success streak in 2018: she was the runner-up in the April 2018 25K in Kōfu, Japan, after having lost to Luksika Kumkhum. The following week, she again lost to Luksika Kumkhum in the final of another 25K in Kashiwa, Japan.

In April 2018, she and Gabriela Dabrowski won the doubles in Fed Cup in Montreal, Canada, advancing to World Group II.

In December 2018-January 2019, she was the runner-up at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand. She lost to Julia Görges in the finals, after having defeated Caroline Wozniacki, Venus Williams, and Hsieh Su-wei.

At the Australian Open, she qualified and progressed to the main draw when she lost to Tereza Smitkova in the final round of the qualifying match.

In January 2019, she won her first WTA 125K title at Newport Beach in January, passing Eugenie Bouchard to become Canada's top-ranked player. In February, she reached the semifinal of the Mexican Open, losing to Sofia Kenin. This placed Bianca at number 60 worldwide.

At the Miami Open, Bianca defeated Irina Camelia Begu in the first round. She staged a comeback win from a double break in the second set, saving a match point in the process. In the second round, she upset Sofia Kenin. After losing the second set from a break up, Bianca defeated the world No. 4 for the second time in as many meetings. In the fourth round, she played against 21st seed Anett Kontaveit, where Bianca lost the first set and was forced to retire at the start of the second set due to a right shoulder injury, putting an end to a ten-match winning streak.

After a grueling first three months of the season, Bianca missed most of the clay season due to the injury in her right shoulder.

In August 2019, Bianca made a come back at the the Rogers Cup in Toronto. In the semi-final, she defeated American Sofia Kenin in straight sets, becoming the first Canadian woman to make it to the finals of the Rogers Cup, since 1969.