By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, March 21, 2019
MIAMI—Anger management is a prerequisite for most players to play their best.
Bianca Andreescu got mad—then she got downright authoritative.
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Down a set and 1-5, Andreescu staged a ferocious rally fighting off a match point to spark a rousing 4-6, 7-6 (2), 6-2, victory over Irina-Camelia Begu in her Miami Open opener.
The Indian Wells champion extended her winning streak to eight matches defeating the tricky Romanian for the second straight tournament.
“I think confidence is a lot,” Andreescu said afterward. “If you have trust in your game and in your training, then a lot of good things can happen. I think at that moment that's exactly what happened.
“I try to stay in the present moment. I try to play every point like it's the first point of the match. I tried to stay as calm as I could, tried to pump myself up. In those moments, I try to go for my shots as much as possible, because I think that's when I play my best tennis.”
If Begu has nightmares, Andreescu may well be starring in them.
In Palm Springs, Andreescu scored a 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-3, comeback victory over Begu in the opening round then went on to beat five seeds—Dominika Cibulkova, Qiang Wang, Garbiñe Muguruza Elina Svitolina and three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber to capture her first title.
Four days after excelling on the nation’s second biggest stadium, Andreescu found herself boxed in on Butch Buchholz court on the brink of elimination.
After dumping successive double faults to fall into a one-set, 1-4 hole, a candid Andreescu vented to coach Sylvain Bruneau, “Every time I try to do the right thing, it never goes away…I’m getting so mad at myself.”
Channeling anger into action, Andreescu reeled off 11 of the final 14 games raising her record to 29-3—including ITF matches—in 2019.
The 18-year-old Canadian is bidding to join Steffi Graf, Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka as the fourth woman to sweep the Sunshine Doubles the same season.
“It would mean everything to me,” Andreescu said. “Winning Indian Wells was incredible, but, I mean, if I win back to back, that would be even more incredible.
“If I keep making history, then I just keep accomplishing my goals, because that's one thing that I have always wanted to do. So if I have my name alongside those amazing players, it would definitely mean a lot. But I'm just trying to focus match after match, and then hopefully that will be the case.”
That focus will be tested tomorrow in round two on Court 2 when Andreescu faces the last woman to beat her—32nd-seeded Floridian Sonia Kenin—with the winner potentially playing the eighth-seeded Kerber in round three.
Kenin, who scored a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 victory over Andreescu in last month’s Acapulco semifinals, can straddle the baseline like the Canadian and rob opponents of reaction time.
“Well, she gets to a lot of balls,” Andreescu said of Kenin. “She rarely misses. She fights really hard. I played her in Acapulco. I lost 7-5 in the third, so I know it's not going to be an easy match, but I'm looking forward to it.
“That day actually I didn't play my best tennis, so hopefully tomorrow, if I'm on a roll, then I think I can do really well, end up winning the match, hopefully.”