Bianca Andreescu has experienced a vast spectrum of emotions in her relatively short career.
There were soaring highs in 2019, when the then-teenager captured the Indian Wells and Toronto titles before stunning Serena Williams to win the US Open.
Then there were dispiriting lows in 2020 and 2021, when Andreescu battled injuries and struggled through two pandemic-impacted seasons before announcing a mental health break.
Now, the 22-year-old finds herself somewhere in between.
After six months away from the game, she rebuilt her ranking from outside the top 100 to its current mark of world No.45, but still well off a career-high No.4.
Yet she competes with a refreshed perspective, benefitting from recent lessons learned on her compelling professional journey.
“That's been the biggest thing for me this past year, is trying to love myself as best as I can,” she told ausopen.com.
“Honestly it's really helped me get to this point right now, just having that love for myself off the court. Because before, it was more result-oriented, and when I'd lose it would be like the end of the world.
“But now I'm so in tune with myself.”
Andreescu has always possessed a notable self-awareness for somebody so young.
She once told ausopen.com she believes this maturity stemmed from travelling the world, often alone, since the age of 12 as she built towards a professional tennis career.
Another reason could be the fact her mother Maria – whom Andreescu cites as her biggest inspiration – introduced her daughter to meditation and spirituality at the age of 14.
She has practiced both ever since, and besides tennis, they are some of her biggest passions.
"Tennis is definitely up there. But outside of tennis, it's just personal development, and meditation, mindfulness, like spirituality, basically,” she explained.
“I read a lot of books, I listen to a lot of podcasts, I do a lot of inner work. I really believe that's the key to really finding true happiness and joy and contentment in life.
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“I'm very interested in how the mind works as well, so I'll dig deep into, like, the psychology behind it, and it really helps me on the court as well.”
In 2022 there were glimpses of the player who was a dominant force three years ago.
Following the announcement of her mental health break in late 2021, Andreescu did not resume competing until April this year.
I wanted to take some time to thank everyone who has stuck by me through the last couple of years (u know who u are), including all my fans. U have no idea how much it all means to me. I’m blessed to continue the journey God has given me and will never take it for granted.
— Bianca (@Bandreescu_) April 23, 2022
When she did, she enjoyed a solid clay-court season – beating Danielle Collins and Emma Raducanu and reaching the Rome quarterfinals – and progressed to the grass-court final in Bad Homburg.
She was also strong on North American hard courts, reaching the third around at Toronto, the US Open and Guadalajara and notching impressive wins over Daria Kasatkina, Alize Cornet, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Liudmila Samsonova and Petra Kvitova.
But she failed to produce the kind of statement performances she so often did three seasons earlier.
Case in point: Andreescu won eight straight matches against the top 10 in 2019, yet went 2-5 against the same group in 2022.
She recently announced a new coach in Christophe Lambert, and will be hoping that collaboration, plus her ongoing inner work, will lead to bigger and better results in 2023.
TICKETS: Catch Bianca Andreescu in action at Australian Open 2023
For it is when Andreescu is healthy and firing that she is better placed to realise her career vision.
"My purpose is to use tennis as a platform to help inspire others. And basically that's using my tennis results, and my tennis base, to hopefully, even during my career, create my own foundation, or do something more than tennis, basically,” she revealed.
"I want to be known as someone who's obviously hard-working, who's very fun and heart-warming to other people. Very spiritually intact, who knows herself and who knows what she wants.
“And who's an incredible tennis player but also just human being.”