Canada Rallies Behind Teenager Hoping to Knock Off Serena at U.S. Open

(Bloomberg) -- Canada is having another sports moment.

Three months after the Toronto Raptors stunned the basketball world with the team’s first championship, a Canadian teenager is trying to make history at the U.S. Open tennis final in Flushing Meadows, New York.

Bianca Andreescu, ranked No. 208 a year ago, can cap an improbable run if the 19-year-old beats No. 8 ranked Serena Williams Saturday. Andreescu, a daughter of Romanian immigrants who grew up near Toronto, has already filled her resume with remarkable achievements. She could become the first Canadian singles player to win a Grand Slam event. And she’s only the third Canadian to reach one of the tennis world’s top finals, joining Milos Raonic at Wimbledon in 2016, and Eugenie Bouchard at the same event in 2014.

She’s also in select company just by making the U.S. Open final as a teenager, joining retired greats like Chris Evert and Pam Shriver.

“If you told me a year ago I’d be in the U.S. Open final I’d say you were crazy,” Andreescu told Shriver in an on-court interview Thursday at Arthur Ashe stadium after dispatching Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.

Despite her young age, Andreescu has already drawn accolades for her composure under pressure and killer instinct on the court. She’s 44-4 in matches this year.

“She certainly doesn’t look like she’s 19,” the way she composes herself, Marnie McBean, a former Olympic rower and chef de mission for Canada’s team at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, said in an interview on CBC radio. “She’s so mature.”

Not surprisingly, other Canadians are also jumping on board to back her, fresh off the euphoria of the Raptors National Basketball Association victory over the Golden State Warriors in June, the first time the championship trophy has been awarded outside U.S. soil.

Steve Nash, one of the greatest basketball players Canada has produced, was leading the charge of support this week, as the “We the North” slogan used by Raptors fans morphs into “She the North” for Andreescu.

Naturally, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, gearing up for an October election, is also on board:

Andreescu of course will have her hands full with Williams, who is pursuing her 24th Grand Slam title. The age gap is stark - Williams, 37, won her first major title nine months before Andreescu was even born.

McBean recounted a story that when Andreescu was 10 years old, she beat her father in a match for the first time. She declared she’d like to play Serena Williams next.

She gets her wish Saturday, with Canadian history on the line.

To contact the reporter on this story: David Scanlan in Toronto at dscanlan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Scanlan at dscanlan@bloomberg.net, Steven Frank, Carlos Caminada

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