The training behind Bianca Andreescu’s success

Winning the U.S. Open, Bianca Andreescu has achieved great success. It came a result of much intense training.

The 19-year-old Canadian tennis player’s training regime started early, draws on the expertise of several organizations, programs and coaches, and beyond tennis practice itself, includes strength training and even meditation.

Andreescu started playing tennis in Romania when she was six. Her family had been travelling back and forth between Romania and Canada, but when she wanted to get serious about tennis, her family moved back to Canada permanently. She joined the Ontario Racquet Club in Mississauga. At the age of eleven, Andreescu joined Tennis Canada, a national training program funded by the Canadian Tennis Association. Even though Andreescu had to spend a lot of her time and attention on training, she never neglected school, finishing her high school diploma through online courses. 

Andreescu has worked with coach Sylvain Bruneau since March 2018. Bruneau has said: “She has the ability, and my job was to help her make the most of the ability.” 

Bruneau always tries to keep practices innovative, challenging Andreescu by throwing new things at her such as working on different coordination and shots, rather than repeating the same movements over and over again. This also helps the player stay motivated during repeated training. Besides, Bruneau mentioned that adaptability is also important as training and matching with different opponents in order to get more familiar with a variety of combat skills. “You actually feel like you can go in her game and really pick things that can be really helpful.” Bruneau said. Andreescu is also an adaptable player.

Andreescu’s unique diversity of playing styles and hitting power adds excitement to her game. Andreescu is very experienced and flexible its means she has played many matches before. An analysis of one of her matches describes a radical cross-court batting action, with a forehand shots from the inside out or a shot close to the net to finish the game. She uses slices and shots near the baseline to get her opponent forward, and then setting the high ball to strike back. 

And other important person is Andreescu’s physical trainer, Virginie Tremblay. Before every game and training session, Tremblay guides Andreescu through warm ups until she is sure she is ready. Bianca is often seen on Instagram in the gym doing physical exercises and she will repeat each action many times, constantly reinforcing the movements that she needs on the court, and working on coordination. She often does deep squats with a dumbbell and uses the medicine ball to help build her arm strength. According to Tremblay, she is doing great and has just begun.

Andreescu not only pays attention to exercise, but also strengthens herself psychologically. Since she was 12, she’s practiced meditation and a lot of yoga regularly. Andreescu said: “I feel like a lot of people work on the physical part of things, but I think the mental part is the most important because it controls your whole body, right?” because she believes it helps to maintain mental discipline on court which is benefit for herself to get success. 

“I think it’s really important to work your mind just as hard as you work physically,” she says. “A lot of people just work physically and forget about the mental part, but in reality your brain is controlling your body.”

So far, not many of Andreescu’s opponents know how to beat her; however, she is not yet at the level of a player like Serena Williams who won 23 grand slam titles. Still, Andreescu is an adaptable tennis player that seems to have unlimited possibilities in formulating strategies. Andreescu is very fond of analyzing her opponents, so she can quickly adjust her game strategy in difficult games.

This moment is already inspiring many young tennis players. After Andreescu got her first Grand Slam title at the US Open, tennis player Keegan Ricer said, “It’s definitely inspiring to all Canadians, not just tennis players, to pick up a racket and go play or get better and show that you can do anything.” 

Cover image: Flikr/ Mrenzaero