Bianca Andreescu's Journey Back to Tennis

Bianca Andreescu stood with the US Open trophy aloft, smiling as glittering confetti fell all around her on Arthur Ashe Stadium.

It was September 2019. The teenager had just beaten the great Serena Williams and, at 19 years old, reached the pinnacle of tennis.

In that moment, she could not have thought it would be more than 2,300 days before she would win another title - nor that the one she did would have a prize of $3,000 (£2,200), less than 0.1% of her $3.9m (£2.9m) earnings at Flushing Meadows.

She might not have expected to return to the lower tiers of professional tennis, where there are no free towels at tournaments and players often have to retrieve their own balls.

But after years of injuries, that was where the Canadian headed in a bid to rebuild what had been such a promising career.

Andreescu's US Open victory capped off a year that also included an Indian Wells title and a Canadian Open win in her hometown of Toronto, and had propelled her up the world rankings.

She had announced herself to the world - but then it all started going wrong.

A knee injury enforced a break at the start of 2020 and the tennis calendar was then paused because of the Covid pandemic. When she walked out to play in February 2021, it was her first time on the court for 16 months.

She also admits she had not been ready for life as a Grand Slam champion.

"I don't think it's possible to really prepare yourself [for a Grand Slam victory], especially if you haven't gone through that before but I wish I had a little bit more guidance after the US Open," Andreescu, now 25, tells BBC Sport.

"You think you know everything at 19, and I just remember I'm not one to ever ask for help, but I am a little bit better at that now. So maybe if I did, things would have been different."

Her current coach Dusan Vemic added: "She had to grow up fast from a carefree teenager to a young woman that she is now.

"You have a different outlook, different points of view on challenges or fun stuff.

"Being a tennis player, being an athlete, you suddenly have a different role. You become a role model for many youngsters."

Andreescu was plagued with injuries - issues with her abdomen and ankle kept her away from the court, and her 2025 season was delayed by appendectomy surgery.

Her form suffered and she has failed to go beyond the fourth round at a Grand Slam since her US Open triumph, with her ranking tumbling from a high of world number four in 2019 to 228 earlier this year.

At the start of 2026 she decided to return to an environment where she hadn't played since 2018, swapping life on the WTA Tour for that on the ITF.

The tournament rankings work from W15 - the lowest level - up to W100. Andreescu was competing in W35 and W75 editions, with the total prize pot for a W35 tournament about £26,000.

The make-up of the ITF tour tends to be youngsters who are trying to make their mark on the sport, women who were unable to break on to the WTA Tour or players who are using it to regain previous form.

The crowds might be tiny and line judges rare, but competition on the court is fierce.

"The hunger the women had that I was playing against, every match was so difficult, and I feel like maybe on the WTA Tour, the athletes are maybe a bit more comfortable with certain things," Andreescu says.

"Certain things are getting paid for [on the WTA Tour]. But on that [ITF] level, nothing's getting paid for, and you're barely breaking even. I was there too at one point, so I know how it is.

"I don't want people to get the idea that the ITF tour is Mickey Mouse compared to the WTA Tour, because that's not the case.

"I feel a lot of admiration and respect for the women that continue to grind on the tour, because it's not easy, even on the WTA Tour, it's just not easy."

Vemic, who joined Andreescu's team in September 2025, echoed those thoughts.

"Every player there needs to prove themselves and everyone is hungry and they're not bored of playing many years on tour," he says.

"They're all driven by their dreams and passion because a lot of them are younger athletes.

"So sometimes it's a transitional part or stage of coming from juniors into professional waters and some of them carry a lot of confidence."

While many of tennis' most talented athletes turned their focus to the Australian Open at the start of the year, Andreescu found herself nestled away in Bradenton on Florida's west coast, navigating coastal storms, eager youngsters and a venue change before her final.

She would go on to win that final 6-2 7-5 against 325th-ranked Vivian Wolff after multiple delays because of violent winds and a move to an indoor court.

It was a stark contrast to her epic success on the big stage in New York, when she battled to hold off a fightback from 23-time major singles winner Williams to become Canada's first Grand Slam singles champion.

The move to a lower level has proven effective. After her win in Bradenton, she went on to reach the semi-finals of another W35 tournament before winning a W75.

"I'm super grateful for that experience because I was able to really test the things that I've been working on in practice, in matches," she says.

"I've been able to test how my body handles the pressure and playing match after match, tournament after tournament, and I got my first singles win in six and a half years. I like to say 'hopefully, I broke the curse'."

Andreescu says she played 14 matches in 16 days - an important move as she tries to get her body ready for the rigours of Grand Slam tennis.

"I don't think I played that many matches ever in a row. and my body held up perfectly fine," she said.

"That's a win. I'm just taking that consistency into the rest of the tour.

"I think it's been going really good. I'm feeling great."

Vemic says Andreescu has being playing "even more aggressive than before" and has been finishing points more at the net.

"She's a bit of an artist on the tennis court. You are always excited to watch her play," says the Serb, who has previously worked with 24-time Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic.

"My biggest thought when thinking about working with her was that I would really like to help her reinvent herself or come back to the level that she deserves to be at."

Andreescu, now ranked 137th, is back in French Open qualifying this week. She will need to get through three matches if she is to make the main draw at Roland Garros.

Her victories on the ITF tour have allowed Andreescu to become more competitive and she has her eyes firmly set on competing for the biggest titles again.

But she is a different person to the 19-year-old who won that US Open title.

"The one thing that stands out for me was the confidence that I had and the fearlessness and the enjoyment that I had on the court - it was more of an innocence," she says.

"I'm a different person now and in a different time in my life, but it's still a part of me.

"It's not that I'm necessarily... trying to replicate [the past], because I don't think that's possible.

"But I've done it once - I know I can do it again."