12 months ago, Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu, ranked 208, lost in the opening round of US Open qualifying for the second successive year.To that stage, Bianca had only made the main draw of one major - Wimbledon 2017, where she won through qualifying but lost her first round match.
At the start of 2019, the ranking was 152, but things changed rapidly. January saw Andreescu make the Auckland final, after winning through qualifying.
After losing as a qualifier in the Australian Open second round, Andreescu won the 125k series event at Newport Beach, both singles rubbers in Fed Cup action against the Netherlands, and reached the semis in Acapulco. Her ranking had improved to #71.
March was the huge breakthrough when at Indian Wells, Bianca captured the Premier Mandatory title. Among the victims were top ten players Elina Svitolina and Angie Kerber in the semis and final respectively.
Round of sixteen in Miami and second round at Roland Garros were the last performances seen from the Canadian for some time because of a serious shoulder injury.
Andreescu impressively won her home nation’s Premier 5 tournament in Toronto, upon returning from injury in August. She defeated Serena Williams, after leading 3-1 in the final, before the American had to retire injured.
A few weeks later, the pair would meet again in another final, the biggest on the North American continent - the fourth and final major of 2019.
Serena Williams, for the second straight year, would use New York in an attempt to win her 24th Grand Slam Singles crown.
Bianca Andreescu began the better, belying the fact that this was uncharted territory, nerves not appearing to interfere with her start.
After Serena had 40-15 in game one of set one, Bianca won the next four points to achieve a service break, and no more break points appeared for five games, leaving the Canadian ahead 4-2.
Serena found herself deeper in strife in the lengthy seventh game, needing to save five break points. This she did, and stuck close at 3-4.
Andreescu fought off the first break point that she’d faced en route to taking a 5-3 lead, and Williams surrendered a 40-30 advantage to drop serve and fall behind 3-6.
Andreescu was half way to glory.
Serve was broken four times in the first six games of set two, three of those the American delivery, and Andreescu led 6-3 5-1. Here, the Williams fight kicked in big time. Andreescu served for the title twice, including having match point at 5-1 40-30. However, Williams broke on each occasion, the second to love.
It was 5-5 before long and once again Andreescu at the line. The talented teenager gathered everything together, and played as she had for the bulk of the match, holding serve competently.
Williams, serving to stay in the match, trailed 15-40, and saved one match point. The second was unable to be saved, and Bianca Andreescu won the game, set and US Open title for 2019 - at her first attempt !
For the third straight year, the four majors have been won by four different women.
