Bianca Andreescu: ‘You’re alone on court. It’s like a lonely, lonely journey’

A fter 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