The Guardian: Bianca Andreescu Reveals the Solitude of Tennis on Court at French Open 2023

After an arduous time on the road this year, Bianca Andreescu’s fortunes finally appeared to be turning on her favoured American hardcourts at the beginning of spring. In Miami, she defeated world No 10, Maria Sakkari, en route to the fourth round of the WTA 1000 event. She was on song.

But while she was battling Ekaterina Alexandrova in the fourth round, disaster struck. Early in the second set, Andreescu landed badly on her ankle and fell. As she waited for the medical team, clearly in shock, Andreescu cried and screamed in pain and frustration.

“First of all, it was the worst pain I’ve ever felt,” says Andreescu. “And second, I was thinking: ‘Why me? Why again?’ and in Miami too, every time I’m in Miami – 2019, 2021, 2023, I’m playing really good tennis, and then I get injured.”

This time, unlike other occasions in her young career since winning the US Open in 2019, the worst-case scenario was avoided. The 22-year-old worked hard on rehabilitating her ankle and she returned a month later in Madrid. “I just tried my best to stay positive. It wasn’t easy. But at one point, I felt a sense of peace, that it was supposed to happen in a way,” says Andreescu.

At the beginning of last season, Andreescu’s mental-health struggles led her to take a break from the sport. She travelled, volunteered in a domestic violence shelter and saw the world beyond tennis. Her crisis came when she recognised that her self-worth was too tied up in her results. “I started at age seven, we kind of identify ourselves as a sports person. And we kind of forget about the human being,” she says.

As she stepped away, she seriously considered whether to continue. “As a young athlete, I was doing really, really well in the juniors, ITFs. And then my first year in the pros, I won the freaking US Open. I knew what it was to win, basically.

“And then when I started losing, I didn’t know what was happening in a way. I didn’t know how to deal with it. I was shocked, which was really weird because people are losing every single week in tennis. And now I know how it feels. I’ve been through it and I’m glad that I did because I was able to realise that if I want to have a long career, I can’t continue like that.”

Andreescu has come to view her sport with a far greater perspective now. “There are more important things out there than winning or losing or even just playing tennis. I’m very grateful to play but having food on the table is more important, amazing parents, supportive friends, little things like that. Thinking about that has really helped me shift my perspective.”

Three weeks ago, Amanda Anisimova, a French Open semi-finalist aged 17 in 2019, announced she would be taking a break due to struggling with her mental health and burnout. “It’s become unbearable being at tennis tournaments,” she wrote.

Andreescu says she sent Anisimova a message and would be there to chat if she wanted. “It takes a lot of guts to do something like that. For me it took a lot because you’re not only thinking about yourself, but you have to think about everybody else around you and to be able to take that step is incredible. So I condone her for that. And I think it’s probably going to be the best decision she’s ever made.”

Tennis can be mentally draining, which Andreescu explains by listing all of the challenges, from the near-endless season to the stress of being an employer, the constant abuse from gamblers – and loneliness. “You’re alone out there, you’re alone on the court, you don’t have anyone really helping you. It’s like a lonely, lonely journey in a way. But if you try to find love in the process, that’s the most important thing, basically, love and appreciation,” she says.

Nowadays, Andreescu is trying to find a balance between throwing herself into her career and maintaining perspective. On court, she has changed much of her team this year. Off court, it means spending more time actually viewing the cities she visits, making beats on SoundCloud, playing sudoku and watching reality shows such as Love is Blind.

On whether her interest in reality TV would translate to her wanting to be in the second season of Netflix’s Break Point tennis docu-series, Andreescu says she declined last year but would now. “I didn’t want to be bombarded with all the cameras at the time. But if they’re going to make a new season I would love to be a part of it. I feel like my personality will be interesting.” Andreescu’s personality would, of course, bring plenty of drama, an assertion she does not dispute. “The drama queen,” she adds.

Since returning from her ankle injury, Andreescu has lost her two matches. She heads into the French Open at zero, trying to build momentum anew and doing so on clay, a still-unfamiliar surface. At the same time, though, Andreescu has seen a lot in her short time on tour and seems far better equipped for whatever is to come.