Canadian Closes The U.S Open
Bianca Andreescu began her Lou Marsh campaign (annual award received by Canada's top athlete) less than a month ago at the Rogers Cup in Toronto. The Mississauga native scratched and clawed her way from the basement dwellings of the tennis rankings to a Rogers Cup title in early August, solidifying her as a top candidate for the 2019 LM award. Now at 19 year's old -- she's 5th in the world rankings and Canada's first ever Grand Slam champion, and a lock for the 2019 Lou Marsh award (honourable mention to Sidney Crosby who is always in contention on my panel).
Admittedly, I am not sure how much pull BBM will have on the voting panel this year. But thankfully for Bianca, she won't need the influence of a world class blog to win this accolade. The narrative of her meteoric rise to tennis stardom this season will be enough evidence.
Based off the first few hundred words of this column, you may be thinking I know everything about tennis. But here's what I really know about the sport:
- John McEnroe is the all-time leader in suspensions, fines and broken racquets.
- Bianca is 19 years old, 5th in the world rankings and Canada's first Grand Slam Champion.
- Serena Williams is widely-considered the greatest female athlete of all-time and unanimously the greatest female tennis player ever (until now).
There was some bad blood going into the U.S Open Women's finals Saturday night in New York. This was a much-anticipated rematch of the Rogers Cup. Serena, known for her durability and toughness, seemed overwhelmed by the young Canadian back in August. Williams was down early in the opening set and began experiencing back spasms, forcing her to forfeit the final in Toronto. Now with Serena nearing retirement, she likely didn't expect to run into the Canadian Amazon again. But she couldn't hide forever.
New York may have been enemy territory for Andreescu, however, Bianca is all about the big city and bright lights. She battled against the boos and blocked out the noise, sweeping Serena in both sets in front of a star-studded crowd -- at 19 years old.
At 19 years old, I was too lazy to clean pizza roll crumbs out of my Xbox controller. But because Bianca can swing her racquet like Xena swings her sword, Canadians continue to experience uncharted territories in this historic summer of sports.
A lot of question marks being raised around Serena's current status, although after she was defeated, Williams went out with her usual grace.
This response may have been distasteful but it is fairly accurate. It was her worst game of the tournament because of the pressure that was put on her from the other side of the net.
The hardware doesn't stop here for Bianca's breakout summer. WWE veteran Hunter Hearst Helmsley has gifted her with the WWE Women's Championship belt after her latest victory.
Not sure if she now has two major titles to defend after this summer but she does join another Canadian WWE Diva on a prestigious list of Women's Champions (who always left me 100% stratusfied).
Either way, the U.S Open Champion will need to save some room on her trophy shelf come this December, when Canada announces our new 2019 Athlete of the Year.