By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday July 3, 2024
13 former Grand Slam champions entered the women’s singles draw at Wimbledon this year. As of this writing, eight currently remain, one of them being Canada’s Bianca Andreescu, who reached the third round with a 6-3, 7-6(5) win over Linda Noskova on Day 3.
Andreescu, who missed nine months with a stress fracture in her back and only made it back to the tour in May, where she reached the third round at Roland-Garros, admits that she has had a rough – and injury-marred – five years since she won her maiden major title at the 2019 US Open, but the confidence still stays with her.
“I have that confidence,” Andreescu said on Wednesday in London. “I know that I've done it. And having done that, I know that I can do it again.”
In addition to confidence Andreescu, who will next face Jasmine Paolini, the woman that knocked her out of the draw at Roland-Garros on a rainy day in early June (6-0 in the third), is counting on a little something she likes to refer to as ‘divine timing’ this week at Wimbledon.
“I guess I keep using this term, but 'divine timing'. I keep saying that,” she said. “I know it's been fricking, what, five years (since I won my major title)? But I know I haven't had, let's say, the easiest career after that. I'm taking it match-by-match. And knowing that [I did win a major], I guess that helps my confidence too because you never know what can happen.”
Since her surprising run in Paris in her 2024 debut, Andreescu has had a decent grass court season (6-2 in 2024 thus far), reaching the final in Berlin, and barely missing out on winning her first WTA title since 2019 when she lost to Liudmila Samsonova in three sets. The 24-year-old says that no matter what happens in the third round and beyond at Wimbledon, she’s just thrilled to be back on court and ramping up her game once again.
“Any chance I can step on the court is a win for me,” she said. “But if I can get that extra win of actually winning the match and finishing it off, then yeah, it's a bonus. My goal is to keep having that momentum.”
And when it comes down to crunch time, the Ontario native can always rely on the fact that she’s already achieved one of the most difficult feats there is to accomplish in the sport. If she could win the US Open as a fresh-faced 19-year-old (on her main draw debut, no less), why can’t she do at Wimbledon?
“I know what I'm capable of, let's say, with my game, with my mental toughness,” she said. “The more I'm playing, the more I'm winning, the more confidence I'm getting. So, yeah, I feel like if I'm on, I can win any tournament I want basically. I just have to be on. I have to be focused and physically well, basically.”