By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday September 7, 2021
Bianca Andreescu ran out of steam against Maria Sakkari and finished her three hour and 30-minute tussle with the Greek out of sorts, hobbled due to a left groin injury.
The Canadian, who was defeated in a main draw match at the US Open for the first time, 6-7(2), 7-6(6), 6-3, says she believes the injury is nothing serious.
“At this point I really don't know, but I slid a couple of times, and I fell on my groin a little bit,” she said of the injury. “I hope it's nothing too serious. But that affected me a little bit. I try not to think about it, but it's hard sometimes. Everything else ... I just need to take some days off and hopefully it'll be good.”
The battle with Sakkari, which finished at 2:13 A.M., ended as the latest finish in US Open history for a women's singles match, and the seventh latest finish of all-time in New York.
Andreescu, who won the Indian Wells title in 2019, says she is planning to make her return to the California desert this October – a sign that she’s confident in her body. She says she even plans to play an event the week before.
“I'm looking forward to [Indian Wells],” she said. “I'll probably play Chicago before that. I think it's like, back to back, Chicago and Indian Wells.”
And the Canadian, who remains the only player to have ever won the US Open on her main draw debut, a feat she accomplished in 2019 at the age of 2019, says she can’t wait to come back to New York in 2022 to build another streak.
“If I come back here I hope I can go 17-1 and win the tournament again,” she said. “But I'm not trying to think too far ahead, because I have so much more work to do to get to that level.”
It was a physical battle against Sakkari, and one that once again proved that if there is anything Andreescu needs to improve in the coming weeks and months, it is her ability to withstand the rigors of elite-level tennis on a day-in-day out basis. Here career has been marred by injuries over the past two seasons, but at 21, with her extraordinary talent, the future looks bright.
“I was expecting that and I went out there with the right mindset, I think, and I did the best that I could,” she said. “I wish I could have finished it in two sets, because I had my opportunities, but tennis is just like that sometimes. I take everything from this tournament and I just look at it, like, 'Wow, I really fought through that. That was crazy.' I was cramping from the start of the third set, and I just kept fighting, and for me that's all that matters. I did my best.”