The great news leading into Roland Garros was that former world No.4 Bianca Andreescu was making a long-awaited comeback to tennis.
The bad news, almost everybody thought, was that she had drawn a first-round opponent as battle-hardened as she was untested.
The 2019 US Open champion faced Sara Sorribes Tormo, a gritty competitor famed for extending matches well beyond the three-hour mark and who arrived in Paris having won seven of her past 10 clay-court matches.
Andreescu hadn’t played since Montreal in 2023, more than nine months ago.
Yet she triumphed 7-5 6-1, in just a touch over 90 minutes.
The performance on Court 10 reminded us of the Canadian’s enormous upside; she struck 42 winners and forced 24 errors from Sorribes Tormo, while limiting her own unforced errors to 25.
Complementing that power was the variety – she came to the net 39 times, winning 30 of those points – which assisted her explosive ascent in 2019, and which works wonders on clay.
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Last year, Andreescu reached the third round at Roland Garros, then her deepest run at a major outside of New York. She is now one win away from matching that result, which she will attempt against 23rd seed Anna Kalinskaya.
In the years since Andreescu, then 19, stunned Serena Williams in that 2019 US Open final, her progression has stalled.
Several significant injuries, plus a six-month mental health break, robbed her of crucial momentum and confidence. Her latest absence means she is currently ranked world No.228; she entered Roland Garros with a protected ranking.
There are parallels between her journey and that of her compatriot Eugenie Bouchard, who enjoyed a brilliant Grand Slam season in 2014 – Bouchard reached the Wimbledon final after semis at the Australian Open and Roland Garros – and also cracked the top five.
Battles with physical health and form ensued and she has never returned to that level, something she was asked about during her 2017 semifinal run in Sydney. “I'm not really comparing to a couple years ago, because, to me, first of all, that's the past,” Bouchard replied.
“I'm tired of thinking about 2014. I'm tired of being asked about 2014.”
Andreescu was more open to comparing her past and present, when asked a similar question by Matt Futterman of The Athletic after beating Sorribes Tormo.
“For me it's inevitable because I do like to think a lot. I'm definitely an over-thinker; I think about the past, the future, everything. So I do want to use the past to help me now,” Andreescu said.
“Like, how I played in 2019 was incredible, and I do want to … more (tap into) the mentality that I had going into 2019. It was super fearless, very competitive, I fought for everything, doesn't matter if I was down 5-0 or I was up 5-0, it was always the same mindset.
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“I feel like that's what I kind of lost over the years, and I have no idea why or how. But just getting into that mentality, the groove of 2019, is kind of the only thing I look at (comparatively).”
That year, Andreescu scooped WTA 1000 titles at Indian Wells and Toronto before her US Open trophy. She beat Caroline Wozniacki – the first of eight consecutive top-10 wins – on her way to the Auckland final in the first week of the season. She also built a 16-match winning streak, spanning August to October.
Ranked outside the top 150 in Auckland, Andreescu concluded her season by qualifying for the WTA Finals and peaking at world No.4. She won 48 of her 56 matches in 2019.
But it was at those WTA Finals where her injury problems began – a meniscus tear sidelined her for more than a year – and she has not won a title since that US Open.
Now aged 23, Andreescu’s experiences have seen her mentality shift as she goes about rescaling the heights she once attained as a teenager.
“I can’t change the past. I’ve done that a lot, to go back in the past and think, what if?” she said ahead of Roland Garros.
“I’ve learned through everyday practice to accept what is and basically do what you can with what you have.
“That helps a lot.”