Front Burner - Bianca Andreescu Brings a Tennis Grandslam to Canada

Episode Date: September 9, 2019

Tennis analyst Caitlin Thompson on how Bianca Andreescu won the U.S. Open this week, becoming the first Canadian to take a singles championship.

In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Jamie Poisson and welcome to FrontBurner's now semi-regular sports championship edition. On Saturday, as you all know now, Bianca Andreescu was at the U.S. Open. She had made it further than any other Canadian singles player in a grand slam.

And she had Serena Williams, maybe the best player at game point. And then this happened. It's an extraordinary debut. Can you believe it? Bianca Andreescu is a U.S. Open champion. Bianca Andreescu then fell to the court. She lay on her back sort of like a starfish.

Her eyes were closed in disbelief at what had just happened. It's the kind of moment that we're going to see on a stamp one day. Today, we're speaking with the CBC's Devin Heroux, who was at that match, and Caitlin Thompson, the publisher of Racket magazine, about Canada's new sports superstar. That's today on Frontburner. Devin, are you there? I am here, Jamie. Here we go again.

Here we go again. Hello, my friend. So the last time you spoke, you were in a stadium in Golden State. And now I'm talking to you from New York, having and you spent the weekend there. And of course, you watched Bianca Andreescu win the U.S. Open. And Jamie, just a second ago, I was basically on cloud nine with Bianca Andreescu atop of the rock at the Rockefeller Center. So what they do after they win the U.S. Open, apparently, I found out that this is sort of customary, where the champion goes up to the top of the rock to get that iconic New York skyline shot with a trophy. So we're up there. Tons of media, Jamie. You wouldn't have believed this scene.

Fans all lining the plaza at the top of the area. And out walks Bianca Andrescu, 19 years old, in high heels, makeup, hair, this stunning dress, carrying this incredible trophy. At the beginning of the year, I wanted to crack the top 100, but I guess I have to start setting my goals a bit higher. She hadn't had a lot of sleep, but there she was in front of the camera. She's a star. People love her. So we were just atop there. She said that, you know, this has sort of just been a dream.

It's kind of all a glaze for her right now. I've been going through so many scenarios in my head with how I thought this day would turn out to be and I never thought it would be like this. But of course she's soaking it all in and there she was on top of the world, literally. And what did she do last night to celebrate her victory? Well, we asked her what time she went to bed. That is something I will not answer. So you can imagine it was a party. She couldn't purchase champagne here in New York. I imagine somebody would have for her. She was with her team. She was with her parents.

And I should also note, of course, Maria, her mom, Nico, her dad, and of course, Coco, the dog, Jamie, they were all atop of the rock as well. So they're all celebrating. I know you got a chance to speak to her parents after the match on Saturday. What did they say to you? Yeah, you know, here's the thing that I've come to learn when you talk to champions, that they have some pretty good parents, right? Humility, grace, poise. I caught up with them. I was almost stunned, Jamie, because there I was on the U.S. Open grounds. It was late.

And they were just strolling around with the dog, taking the dog for a late-night walk at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. I caught up with him that dog is the best it was barking during our chat probably as thrilled as everyone coco's obviously happy niku for you and so look they were they were just talking about how proud they are of Bianca, how hard she's worked, and that this is her moment, that they knew she always belonged on this stage. It's unreal, but she deserves to be here. She works so hard, so this is where she belongs.

Bianca has said it. She's talked about her visualization. Her parents reaffirmed that to me. So there's no secret to this Jamie she believed all of this and all the stars aligned here in New York this week and it's truly an incredible story her parents came from Romania with just two suitcases so it's it's amazing I know Bianca has said many times that what she wanted to do was be able to afford to have her parents travel with her all the time and this 3 $3.8 million U.S. she got probably will help her with that endeavor.

Yeah, Jamie, they're going to be able to travel the first class experience for the rest of her tennis career. Yeah, I mean, so many compelling storylines. In fact, two years ago, three years ago, when she was 16, she won an Orange Bowl title. And after that, she wrote herself a check pretending she had just won the U.S. Open title. So she talked a lot about visualization, imagining this moment. She talked about playing Serena Williams in this stage, in Arthur Ashe Stadium. It's so crazy, man. I've been... And she actually broke down at the podium on Saturday night after she won her match and just sort of said, you guys, I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've seen this happen.

And for it to come true on this stage she was lost for words jamie i've been dreaming of this moment for the longest time i won on the orange bowl a couple months after i really believed that i could be at this stage and since then honestly i've been visualizing it almost every single day. That was truly an incredible moment in her press conference. Devin, before we go today, big question. When we left you last time, we were talking about the parade that was going to happen for the Raptors. When are we having a parade for Bianca? We need to have a parade.

My Twitter's been blowing up, Jamie, about when's a parade, when's a parade. I don't know if Canada has ever held a parade for a single person, but let me tell you, obviously that Raptors run, historic Raptors run, unparalleled, you know, the scenes have played out on parade day, everything like that. But there's also something so incredibly relatable and galvanizing and unifying about this 19-year-old Canadian who just seems so humble, seems so relatable, so enjoyable. I think we need a parade, Jamie. I think we need a parade too. Well, I look forward to seeing you soon. Have a really safe flight back and thanks for fitting us in today, Devin. Hey, I'm always happy to talk to you about a Canadian athlete or a Canadian team winning

a championship. I know we have all the champions here. What a year. What a year. In the Dragon's Den, a simple pitch can lead to a life-changing connection. Watch new episodes of Dragon's Den free on CBC Gem. Brought to you in part by National Angel Capital Organization, empowering Canada's entrepreneurs through angel investment and industry connections. OK, now on to Caitlin Thompson of Racket Magazine. Caitlin, thank you so much for being with us. It's a total pleasure. Thanks for having me. So I understand that you were in New York for a few days and you watched Bianca play in the semifinals, right?

I watched a couple rounds of Bianca's matches, most notably that she played against Elise Mertens. Triple set point. Very one-sided in the opener. And it's Mertens who takes the first set. Came back and victorious after 10.30 p.m. She's got it. Game, set, and match. Shondra Eskew. The fairy tale continues. She was amazing to watch this tournament. Let's move to the finals. And what did she do on Saturday that made her better than Serena Williams? Well, a couple of things. First of all, she has swagger for days. Now, that doesn't normally sound like a technical term for a tennis player,

being able to outperform another, especially a legend like Serena Williams. But really, truly, one of Bianca Andreescu's superpowers is that she just does not have it in her to lose. She refuses to lose. She refuses to sort of meet the moment with anything other than complete confidence and swagger. And there was a really interesting shot of the two of them in the tunnel,

which kind of told you a lot about not only the match, but also where they are in their lives and why the collision of these two very powerful forces would be so compelling. It's a great shot. Imagine the nerves and the anxiety going through young Bianca's mind at the moment. In the tunnel, they're getting ready to come out into the court. You see Serena, she's in her extremely cool, very fashionable sort of like overcoat windbreaker thing. Her coach is there. She's got an entourage and a coterie and she's certainly

earned it. But there's a lot going on. And then right in front of her in the foreground of the shot is Bianca Andreescu wearing her headphones, rocking out, swaying side to side, kind of a smirk on her face, but really just like in the moment and happy. And that's how she played. She played in the moment and she played really, truly like the best of her game. Serena just didn't match quite where she was. Right, right. You talk about this confidence that she has. It was not an easy environment in that arena, hey? Like, people were cheering for Serena Williams.

They were cheering when Bianca messed up. They were cheering when Bianca messed up. That's partly to do with the fact that the U.S. Open is, in terms of the Grand Slams anyway, Serena Williams' home event. And the other thing is she was going for history. Now, I could sort of bore you to death with the whole idea of what 24 Grand Slams means, why their record is kind of phony baloney, why Serena already actually has the record. But the thing that really matters is Serena Williams really, really, really wanted to win this. It was her fourth Grand Slam final,

coming back from essentially maternity leave. And she wants to grab it by the throat and have it undeniable that she is the greatest of all time. I would say she is that already. But I think the crowd really wanted that to happen. The crowd is notorious in New York for being a little raucous, a little boozy. They don't tend to follow the normal sort of rules of decorum of the sport. There was a lot of glasses of rosé there, I have to say, watching on my television. Yeah, I was there the other night and somebody's Grey Goose Honey Deuce,

which is like sort of like notoriously branded house cocktail. The plastic cup that comes in was like clacking and tumbling down the stairs, like the huge stadium stairs. It maybe took like, it felt like about five minutes. And it just sort of gives you a sense of like, this is a raucous atmosphere and they really want to see Serena

take home the trophy. Bianca, what did you have to overcome to get across the finish line? Definitely the trophy. Bianca, what did you have to overcome to get across the finish line? Definitely the crowd. So not only was Bianca at a huge disadvantage playing one of the legends of the game with sort of a hostile crowd, but also Serena Williams is used to winning matches before she steps onto the court. She has been so good for so long without a ton of competition that a lot of times people she was playing would defeat themselves

before they even stepped on the court, kind of psyching themselves out of it, thinking, God, I have to not only have one of the best days of my life, she has to have a bad day, which doesn't happen very often. I have to surmount the crowd, and an act of nature has to take place so that I can even have a fighting chance at this thing. Right, right. It becomes this mental game.

And talking about that swagger that you were saying earlier, you know, I did love it after the match when Bianca essentially apologized to the crowd for winning. But she wasn't like really apologetic. She said it in kind of a chippy way. It was it was great. I know you guys wanted Serena to win, so I'm so sorry. That's what I absolutely love about this kid, having watched her at Indian Wells, which is kind of considered the fifth major by a lot of people. It's a huge tournament. It's in Palm Springs, California at the beginning of March. And she came out of nowhere and won it

this year. What a set from Bianca Andreescu. I'm almost getting tired of saying that. And she won it with that same swagger, that sort of chippy attitude. She's not here to make friends, but she's also not here to play anything other than her best tennis that's in herself, right? You get the sense she's incredibly sort of both self-assured but also self-aware, which is a really cool combination. It's crazy what a year can do.

I was playing 25Ks in Japan, and now I'm the... Can I say the F word? No, I can't. The effing champion of Indian Wells. It's... Crazy. what is it that makes bianca's game so special two short ideas that i'll explain number one she can deliver and absorb power number two is that she's got variety for days and she knows how to use it. So unpacking number one, she can hit as hard as anybody on the pro tour. That's no small feat considering Serena Williams also hits really hard as does Naomi Osaka and a couple other sort of big,

big hitters. Madison Keyes is another one. This is like big babe tennis. You're just sitting back there belting balls. Did you say big babe tennis? That's what they used to call it back in like the early 2000s, like Lindsay Davenport, the first Williams sister, Venus Williams, the beloved. I love Venus Williams so, so much. This was big babe tennis, like just huge women hitting huge balls from the backcourt. Not always the most finesse, not always the most ability to change direction or change tactics, but when they were on and firing huge huge ground game as we would call it now bianca can do that and stand in there but she also has this totally other magical thing that is usually found in totally different types of players which is her

weird sort of counter punching ability to use variety usually players are one or the other doing both things she does it. Got it. Is there anything this young woman can't do on a tennis court? And tell me more about what variety means. Like for somebody like me who doesn't know a ton about tennis. A couple of things. Where she's standing on the court is notable.

A lot of people sort of pick a spot. Mostly it's behind the baseline and stay there. They'll slug it out and hit a bunch of ground strokes and whoever misses first or whoever hits the winner first wins the point. Bianca Andreescu doesn't have to stay behind the baseline because she can hit a winner and create sort of a point from anywhere. She can do it on her serve. She can also come into the net. She has a variety of shot selections. So she's not always hitting a topspin forehand or a topspin backhand. Sometimes she's hitting a short chip slice. A lot of times she's not always hitting a topspin forehand or a topspin backhand. Sometimes she's hitting a short chip slice. A lot of times she's hitting a high, extremely looping forehand, which when I was growing up we used to call them moonballs.

Moonballs are really, really hard to return because it essentially disrupts your opponent's pattern. They're expecting to get a ball sort of in their strike zone that they've been seeing the whole time, and now all of a sudden you've made them adjust where their hitting zone is and maybe they're hitting off their back feet it's not moonballing it's just hitting heavy to her backhand with more with more uh spin we're not under 12 here but so she does this naturally she just kind of has this whole kitchen sink approach and if you're playing her you have to move forward you have to move backwards you have to move side to side you have to look for a short

ball or she might try to hit you with an ace so she just has amazing amazing amazing amounts of tools different shots that she can play with and it's really an interesting sign of sort of a mature player who has not only developed one part of their game but actually so so so many different ones that could be at odds with each other and has the smarts to know when to deploy them. It's suggestive of a really, really complex sort of strategy. And that's why I think it's so exciting to a lot of us who watch tennis very closely. She has tools and does things that very, very few people do, even after they've been playing on the tour for many years. And here she is, just 19 years old. It's like Athena popped fully formed from the head of Zeus. Wow, that's a really

good analogy. So obviously, Bianca Andreescu is one of the best players in the world right now. But she has challenges ahead of her she actually missed a few months with a shoulder injury earlier this year and is that something that we should be worried about here in the case of a player whose serve is so dominant certainly having a very serious injury that's like a rotator cuff is not a small thing on the other hand obviously she's young and like the youth that many of us are jealous of now, she has the ability to heal and bounce back quickly and can have, I think, a number of alternate sort of medical interventions if this is something that ends up bothering her a lot.

I think one of the most interesting things about Bianca's season is she came out guns blazing at the beginning of the year, won Indian Wells, like like i said made another final well i think julia gurgis quite likes coming to auckland but this year she had to beat a remarkable 18 year old qualifier pulled out of a whole bunch of tournaments actually rested her body rested herself the tennis season for a lot of people who don't know is extremely long it's extremely grueling it essentially starts the week before christmas and new years these players fly all the way down to australia to begin their season preparing for the australian they're about a month they're almost never home for the holidays and then the very very end the tour finals end up happening end of

october early november so if you do the math that's essentially six weeks off the entire year tennis is an incredibly physical game they're playing playing almost every week. And so for her to have a four month chunk to kind of rest, recuperate, reflect on her win and do a lot of what we now know that she does that's important to her success, like visualization, meditation, really having a lot of perspective about what was happening to her, I think was ultimately very net positive. Yeah, last year wasn't an easy period in my life. I was going through a lot with injuries, but I persevered. I told myself to never give up. I had a really good preseason with my amazing team. I thank you guys so much for sticking by me every step of the way.

So on one hand, yeah, you don't like to see an injury, especially this young. On the other hand, she's not afraid to kind of do what's right for her. And I think if you look at Naomi Osaka, for example, somebody who won two Grand Slams back-to-back was thrust immediately into all sorts of crazy spotlights, signed incredibly high endorsement deals. I'm Naomi Osaka, and I'm a brand investor for Nissan. And, you know, is beloved by simultaneously three nations,

Japan, Haiti, and the United States at least. I don't really think too much about my identity or whatever. For me, I'm just me. It can be very overwhelming at a young age. So the fact that Bianca had the perspective and the ability to sort of step back, heal herself, made me really excited that she might be good at managing how her career and her body kind of hold up over the years to come. Right, right. Basically just knowing when she needs that time.

Speaking along those lines, a few years ago, there was another young woman who looked like a future tennis star from Canada, Eugenie Bouchard. And she made the semifinals of two Grand Slams in 2014 when she was just 20 years old. So very close in age to Bianca. Bouchard is just 12 games, two sets, one match away from the title of Wimbledon champion. She earned her spot today with confidence, grace and strength. But she hasn't been very good since then. The winnings stopped in front of a hometown crowd at the Rogers Cup in Montreal. Bouchard buckled, easily defeated by a much lower ranked opponent. And so what happened to her? Pretty different case in three ways.

Number one, she has a very one dimensional game. Eugenie Bouchard is sort of a big, big tennis player, like I was describing earlier. She's somebody who likes to hit big from the baseline. And she did have a really good year making a final at Wimbledon. However, she was never really possessing of a complete game. And I think she lost the Wimbledon final in under 40 minutes. I mean, I might be exaggerating, but not by much. You will be a champion of the future. I'm sure you believe that too. Thank you. Yeah, I feel like it's a step in the right direction. I don't know if I

deserve all your love today, but I really appreciate it. So that's number one with Eugenie Burchard. Number two with Eugenie Burchard, to be fair, it's hard to blame her, but she spent a lot of time off the court pursuing a lot of modeling and doing a lot of activities that don't exactly comport themselves with spending time focusing on improving your game. So if you're somebody who has a one-dimensional game, and from what I've heard from her agents and people who work very closely with her, she's a little bit more concerned with if she's going to book the Swim City issue of Sports Illustrated than how she's going to perform in tournaments. That might be a bit of a dig, but I've heard enough that I kind of believe it a little bit. And I think the third

thing, and this is true and something we have to be very, very careful about, both with Bianca and another sort of American narrative that's come out of this summer's tennis, which is Coco, Coco Gauff, who's only 15 years old. Coco Gauff became the youngest qualifier in history to make the main draw at Wimbledon. Look out, New York. Coco Mania is catching hold. Which is the idea that phenoms are inherently good or interesting. I don't love when we kind of anoint tennis players the next big thing because we've seen so often how awful that can turn out for them. The worst case scenario is probably somebody like Jennifer Capriati or many, many, many others who sort of flame out and in

some cases get involved in drugs and can't kind of get their lives together because they've been told from too young an age that greatness is coming. They should expect it. The people who have sort of their knives out all around them, you know, they're not prepared to deal with. It strikes me that that's something that you could take beyond the world of sports, too, right? Like acting, singing, you know, you look at these young pop stars. It's like a lot of pressure to put on someone of that age. Is there anyone who's made the transition really well? I mean, I think Serena herself did.

What does that sound like when you hear those words? 1999 U.S. Open women's champion. It's just really too exciting to compete right now. This had been your dream. And here you realized it. I mean, that is, and you're 17. Yeah, so it does work that you have an early indication of greatness does actually pan out to be greatness, right?

And Serena's case, she, by all accounts, is the greatest of all time by a lot of different measures. However, I think the amount of times that works out is very, very few and far between. And for what? More often than not, they end up average or a lot of times below average. So I would love to see a sort of reframing the conversation around a lot of sort of teen breakouts as rather, hey, this kid is starting to look like they're going to be good how can we protect and measure and help grow and not heap expectations on them so that they can enjoy this thing that gives us so much enjoyment which in this case obviously is watching really world-class tennis is there anything canadians can do to try and protect bian from all of that pressure? I actually think watching this

match and seeing what the Serena fans now expect is a good object lesson. Look, I am not going to deny Canada, the country of my birth, the chance to celebrate their first ever Grand Slam champion. That is a huge, huge accomplishment. It means we can probably finally stop talking about Greg Brzezinski, who by all accounts was like not that great to talk about. It means we can probably finally stop talking about Greg Brzezinski, who by all accounts was not that great to talk about. And now we have this amazing, cool star to embrace. But what I would suggest is unlike demanding and expecting perfection, which is where Serena fans a lot of times have veered,

especially in this late in the game where they just want to see her get this 24, this elusive 24. Rather, take time and be patient and show up to the small tournaments and the small matches. And, you know, when players say, hey, I'm burnt out, I need to take time away or don't cheer against my opponent, cheer for good tennis. I think those are all things that sort of make a player feel like they're part of a greater fabric, part of a greater context. And the fans really are there to be supportive regardless of the results. I think if that becomes the mentality of the Canadian fanship, this kid will delight and really entertain

the entire nation of Canada for years to come. Well, that seems like a great note to end on. Caitlin, thank you so much before we go today. You'll remember that Caitlin was talking about how Japan, Haiti, and the United States have all come to love Naomi Osaka. Well, of course, Canadians love Bianca Andreescu, but she is also a superstar in Romania as well. My whole family is in Romania, and I try every year to go there to see them.

And the second thing. Our friend Nala Ayad, amazing journalist, been on FrontBurner several times, just recently started a new role hosting CBC's Ideas. It's a radio show. It's a podcast. It's great at going deep on very complex topics. Nala has a two-part series on walls and borders and how they divide us. She's talked about this a bit on FrontBurner before. She's talked about this a bit on FrontBurner before. Part one looks at the peace walls of Belfast and part two, the border with the Republic of Ireland, which is newly in the spotlight because of the whole Brexit mess. It is definitely worth checking out.

You can subscribe to the Ideas podcast wherever you subscribe to FrontBurner. That's all for today. Thanks so much for listening and see you guys tomorrow.