Saskatchewan Roughrider fans can be thankful to Bianca Andreescu for giving them something to cheer for last weekend.
Rider fans were looking forward to sitting down Saturday and watching their beloved Green and White play the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the annual post-Labour Day showdown known as the Banjo Bowl. But at the same time the Riders were playing, Bianca Andreescu, the 19-year-old Canadian tennis phenom, was on the court in the final of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, trying to become the first Canadian to ever win a Grand Slam tennis tournament.
Of course, we know which of these sporting events was worth watching.
It didn’t take long for Rider Nation to realize their team was outclassed by the Bombers, even though Winnipeg was without their top player (Canadian running back Andrew Harris) and their No. 1 quarterback (Matt Nichols). When it was 28-3 Winnipeg late in the second quarter, you could hear the sound of remotes clicking as Rider fans changed channels. If their timing was right, they would have seen that Andreescu was up 5-1 in the second set of the match, and on the cusp of victory.
When Williams rallied to tie the set at 5-5, you had to wonder if Rider fans were wondering which game they should watch – the one in which the Riders were already defeated, or the one in which Canada’s young tennis star was seemingly on the ropes.
If they would have stayed with tennis, they would have seen Andreescu hold serve to take a 6-5 lead, and then break Williams’ serve to win the set and the match.
If they would have switched back to football, they would have seen the Riders get trounced.
I’m not a big tennis fan by any stretch. Outside of the Canadian players, the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova, I’m not sure if I could name a single female tennis player on the planet. I could likely name the same number of men’s tennis players.
But I know that Andreescu’s victory is a big deal.
It was undoubtedly the biggest victory in Canadian tennis history. You could argue that Andreescu already had the biggest Canadian victory in many years when she won the Rogers Cup national tennis tournament a few weeks earlier.
But all she did on Saturday at the U.S. Open was go up against the greatest women’s tennis player of all time, at a tournament held on Williams’ home soil. Williams was chasing a record 24th major. Andreescu was in her first Grand Slam final.
Andreescu beat her. In straight sets. With the exception of that four-game rally in the second set, Andreescu outclassed Williams. She set the tone when she broke Williams in the first game of the match.
There was one point in the second set where it appeared the pressure might be getting to Andreescu, when she covered her ears in response to the noise from the very pro-Williams crowd (even though in tennis, crowd favouritism is strongly discouraged).
Andreescu’s story is incredible. Her parents were immigrants from Romania who came here 25 years ago in search of a better life. As for her career, she was an unknown in most circles at this time a year ago who wasn’t even in the top 150 players in the world.
Now she’s the fifth-ranked player, and people are talking that she will one day be regarded as the best female tennis player on the planet.
And she’s pretty much a slam dunk to win the Lou Marsh Award, which goes to Canada’s top athlete of the year.
We’ve seen a significant increase in the quality of Canadian tennis in the past decade, both on the men’s and the women’s side. Milos Raonic reached the men’s Wimbledon final a few years ago; Eugenie Bouchard did the same on the women’s side. But both lost in the final.
We’ve seen several other players come along who have enjoyed success.
Canada has produced several great doubles players in its history, but Grand Slam singles success had eluded our athletes.
Andreescu will now have to handle the pressure of another situation: balancing the demands that are associated with her newfound fame, while working to improve on her tennis game. This will not be easy; she’s going to have to worry about endorsements, public appearances, press conferences and other requests for her time that she didn’t have at the start of the year.
While she was a rising star on the tennis circuit before the start of the U.S. Open, she was still largely unknown outside of the spot. Since she won, she has made appearances on Good Morning America and Jimmy Kimmel Live.
Hopefully she continues to show the composure on the court that allowed her to beat the best who ever lived, and display grace and class off the court.
If she does, then we’re going to talk about her becoming a multi-time major champion who inspires the next generation of young Canadian women to take up the sport.
But we can’t always depend on watching her play each time the Riders are getting blown out on the field.
