Andreescu's rise to fame

In less than a year, Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu has gone from a relatively unknown tennis prospect on the WTA to a US Open finalist against arguably the greatest player to ever swing a racket. 

The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., will take on 37-year-old Serena Williams Saturday afternoon at historic Arthur Ashe Stadium with the final Grand Slam title of the season on the line. If Andreescu wins, she will take home $3.85 million. If she loses, she will still receive at least $1.9 million as the runner-up.

You can watch all the action LIVE Saturday at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT on TSN 4/5, the TSN App and TSN Direct. The pregame show with Mark Roe starts at 3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT on TSN4, the TSN App and TSN Direct. 

Andreescu's rise is truly remarkable. 

At the end of the 2015 season she ranked 633rd in the world before moving to 306th in 2016, 182nd in 2017 and 178th at the end of last season, never being able to qualify for a Grand Slam. When she steps onto the biggest court in tennis on Saturday, Andreescu will sport a No. 15 world ranking before moving into the top 10 (no lower than No. 9 and as high as No. 5 if she beats Williams) on Monday. 

Let’s take a closer look at Andreescu's 2019 season and how she got here.

 

January

Tournament: ASB Classic (Auckland, New Zealand)
Result: Final appearance (7-1) 
Prize Money: $21,400

The first surprising Canadian sports story of the year came from Andreescu. 

She came into the New Zealand tournament ranked 152nd in the world, but quickly made headlines around the country despite the significant time change after defeating former world No. 1s in Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams in back-to-back matches to reach the semifinals. 

She then took out No. 3 Su-Wei Hsieh in straight sets before falling to the second ranked Julia Georges in the final 6-2, 5-7, 1-6. 

"It is disappointing, I was one game away from winning the match, so I'll probably be thinking about this for the next couple of days," said Andreescu after the match. "But I can't complain. I had an amazing week. I beat a lot of top players. I'm just really proud of myself."

Was this surprise final run an outlier or was Andreescu going to be the real deal? 

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Tournament: Australian Open Grand Slam (Melbourne, Australia)
Result: Round of 64 (1-1, 3-0 in qualifying)
Prize Money: $78,121

After missing out in the qualifying round the previous two years, Andreescu won all three of her matches in straight sets to advance to the main draw.

She started the first Grand Slam of the season with a marathon 7-6, 6-7,6-3 victory over American Whitney Osuigwe in the Round of 128. Andreescu gave a good fight in the Round of 64, but lost to Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova 3-6, 6-3, 2-6. 

The result was good enough to move her into the Top 100 on the WTA rankings. 

 

Tournament: Oracle Challenger Series - 125K Series (Newport Beach, United States)
Result: Won (5-0)
Prize Money: $24,000

On the 125K series, the secondary professional tennis circuit, Andreescu went a perfect 5-0 for her first event victory, capping it off with a 0-6, 6-4, 6-2 comeback win over Jessica Pegula of the United States. 

 

February 

Tournament: Fed Cup Week 1 ('s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands)
Result: Won (2-0)
Prize Money: $0

Canada swept Netherlands in the first round of the Fed Cup thanks in large part to Andreescu, who picked up a pair of victories in straight sets. The Canadian were eliminated by Czech Republic in April with Andreescu absent. 

 

Tournament: Abierto Mexicano TELCEL (Acapulco, Mexico)
Result: Semifinals (3-1)
Prize Money: $11,500

Andreescu had another excellent showing outside of North America, making the semis in Mexico where she fell to Sofia Kenin 4-6, 6-3, 5-7 in a three-set thriller. She would get her revenge on the American at the Rogers Cup in Toronto later in the season. 

 

March

Tournament: BNP Paribas Open (Indian Wells, United States) 
Result: Won (7-0)
Prize Money: $1.354 million

By the end of the week in California, everybody in the tennis world knew the name Bianca Andreescu.

After taking three matches to advance to the Round of 16, the 60th-ranked Canadian defeated No. 18 Qiang Wang, No. 20 Garbine Muguruza, No. 6 Elina Svitolina and finally No. 8 Angelique Kerber 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to capture the prestigious tournament widely known as the sport's fifth major. 

"The fricking champion of Indian Wells," Andreescu said immediately after the match. "It's crazy."

Head coach Sylvain Bruneau felt confident in Andreescu winning the title after an on-court meeting in the third and final set. 

"To be honest, I felt the moment when she stood up from her chair — the energy was there," Bruneau said. "Because sometimes a player, they're beaten up a little bit, and they (struggle) out of the chair. I just felt it was like — boom. I just felt it. We said a few more words and I just felt she was ready to go.

"She did it and my hat goes off to her. That's pretty amazing what she did."

Andreescu showed her toughness at Indian Wells as well, playing most of the final with right arm/shoulder pain that needed medical treatment during the game. 

With the shocking victory, Andreescu rocketed up to No. 24 in the WTA rankings. 

 

Tournament: Miami Open (Miami, United States)
Result: Round of 16 (3-1)
Prize Money: $91,205

Andreescu played and defeated three-time Grand Slam champ Kerber once again and this time things got slightly heated after the contest.

Kerber called the Canadian the "biggest drama queen ever" while offering a fairly cold handshake at the net, apparently citing the fact that Andreescu took another medical timeout during the match just like she did at Indian Wells.

The German switched her tone the following day, congratulating Andreescu "for a great performance and a well-deserved win."

Andreescu was forced to retire in her next match against Anett Kontaveit with the same shoulder injury, snapping her 10-game winning streak. 

 

May

Tournament: French Open Grand Slam (Paris, France)
Result: Round of 64 (1-1)
Prize Money: $100,219

Andreescu took a five-week break from all on-court activities to get her right shoulder back in shape for Roland Garros at the end of May.

At the French Open, Andreescu downed Marie Bouzkova of Czech Republic in three sets in the Round of 128.

However, pain in her right shoulder reared its head once again after the first-round victory, forcing Andreescu to withdraw from her Round of 64 matchup against American rival Kenin. 

"Pain that was similar to what she had in Indian Wells and Miami," said coach Bruneau to TSN Mark Masters, "and then after she finished her match on Tuesday we felt that it was probably appropriate to get some testing done with doctors and get some images and it came back that, actually, it’s the same injury that she had, but it’s not at the same level, it’s not as bad."

The injury forced her to sit out Wimbledon, the third Grand Slam of the season, in July. 

 

August

Tournament: Rogers Cup (Toronto, Canada)
Result: Won (6-0)
Prize Money: $521,530

Andreescu turned 19 in June during her second rehab stint of the season and was finally ready to play in her hometown at the Rogers Cup in Toronto. 

The Mississauga, Ont. native was ready for the spotlight to say the least. 

Andreescu topped fellow Canada Eugenie Bouchard in the opening round before beating Daria Kasatkina, No. 5 Kiki Bertens, No. 3 Karolina Pliskova and Kenin to punch her ticket to the final against 24-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams.

The highly anticipated match did not meet expectations as Williams was forced to retire in the first set with an injury. 

"I'm speechless right now. I'm the first Canadian who got to the finals and has won this tournament since 1969," Andreescu told the crowd after the match. "This been a dream come true, really.

"This week has not been easy. I've had many, many tough matches."

Andreescu jumped up to No. 14 in the world after the week Toronto, but acknowledged she wanted more.

"If I keep putting in the work, if I keep believing in myself and not getting intimidated by who I play, then I really believe that I can be No. 1 in the world," Andreescu said.