Bianca Andreescu focuses on having fun after enduring two years of hell

At an unpredictable time in women’s tennis, where nearly anyone can beat anyone else on any given day, there is at least one certainty in the Italian Open draw this year. Iga Swiatek, a player who recently won the US Open as a teenager and is now charged with trying to back up that first great triumph, will advance to the second round in Rome.

The only question is who she will play against. Either Bianca Andreescu or Emma Raducanu – two players with many similarities – await after they were drawn to face each other for the first time in the first round on Tuesday.

While the spotlight has remained on Raducanu in her first full season following her US Open triumph, this has arguably been an even more notable year for Andreescu. Her career so far has been a reflection of the difficulties that tend to come with tasting success at such a young age. First her body could not quite keep up with her talents – she did not compete for 14 months after 2019 because of a torn meniscus and various ailments – then the mental toll of her struggles left a mark.

Andreescu said her results came to dictate her mood and self-worth, with consequences that were hard to take, and she eventually decided to step away from the sport indefinitely in October.

“I’m being really honest here, but I actually wanted to quit the sport,” Andreescu said in an interview with WTA Insider before she returned in Stuttgart last month. “It was really bad. I am privileged in a way for having this opportunity and doing all of this. Now I’m very grateful, more than ever. So I don’t want people to think: ‘Oh you’re a little baby, just suck it up.’ But it was an accumulation of two-and-a-half years. A lot had happened and I just didn’t want to deal with anything any