“In the third set against Svitolina, I told myself, ‘I’m going to stick to my tactics and just go for it,’” Andreescu said. “So that’s what I did, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the last couple of months. This is my first time actually on the tour playing against such high-level athletes, so I really have nothing to lose, and in the final as well I have nothing to lose. I’m just going to go out there and believe in myself because anything is possible.” Andreescu, born to Romanian parents in the Toronto suburb Mississauga, is part of a new wave of gifted Canadian teenagers with flashy games, immigrant families and potential Grand Slam titles in their future. It includes Denis Shapovalov, the 19-year-old with the leaping, one-handed backhand who is ranked No. 25 in the men’s game, and Felix Auger-Aliassime, 18, who turned heads here in Indian Wells by upsetting 10th-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round. This comes after the Canadian Eugenie Bouchard broke into the top five at age 20 after a phenomenal 2014, including a run to the Wimbledon final. But Bouchard fell back quickly and is ranked 73rd at age 25. Though she has shown signs of resurgence, she is also a cautionary tale after struggling to manage new expectations, albeit with a more limited tennis skill set than Andreescu’s. Keeping Andreescu grounded as her prospects soar is her team’s goal, and her own goal, too. “It’s easy to get distracted,” said her coach, Sylvain Bruneau, the head of women’s tennis at Tennis Canada. “But it’s going to be part of my work to make sure she stays in the moment.” Andreescu does her part by spending 15 minutes each morning doing what she calls “creative visualization”: imagining herself experiencing the situations she will face on court and off so she will be better equipped to manage them if and when they come. Many elite athletes rely on visualization, including the world’s best women’s Alpine skier, Mikaela Shiffrin.<doc-sep>An 18-year-old Bianca Andreescu needed a wild card to enter the Indian Wells draw directly and she surely knew how to get the most from it, toppling the 5th seed Elina Svitolina 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in two hours and 12 minutes for the biggest final in a career. Bianca is the first player born in 2000 in the final of the Premier Mandatory event and also the first player in the history of Indian Wells to do so with a wild card, entering the top-35 and moving towards the very top of the women's tennis. Almost nothing could separate Andreescu and Svitolina on the court, with the Canadian winning just two points more overall, fending off 13 out of 19 break points and securing six breaks of serve, two of those in the decider to push herself over the finish line. Elina kicked off the match in the best possible way, breaking Bianca twice to open a 3-0 lead before the youngster found her range, rattling off four straight games to move 4-3 up with a backhand crosscourt winner in the seventh game. A forehand winner secured another break for Andreescu a few minutes later and she grabbed the opener with another one in game nine, moving 6-3 ahead with six straight games and massive momentum on her tally. Svitolina started to play better on the return in set number two, stealing 60% of the points behind Bianca's initial shot and scoring three breaks for a 6-2, becoming a favorite before the decider. Andreescu was ready to fight for every point, though, breaking Elina at the start of the decider before the Ukrainian erased the deficit with a break in game six to level the score at 3-3. A forehand return winner sent Bianca 4-3 ahead and she defended three break points in the following game to open a 5-3 advantage and move closer to the finish line. Svitolina saved a match point in the ninth game when Andreescu's backhand landed long and she had the opportunity to prolong the match, with three break chances up for grabs in game ten. Bianca stayed focused to repel them all, converting the fourth match point after a loose forehand from Svitolina to celebrate another huge win and move into the final. In a far less exciting match, the 8th seed Angelique Kerber took down an in-form Belinda Bencic 6-4, 6-2 in 67 minutes for the place in the 29th WTA final and the first since Wimbledon last year. This was the fifth encounter between the two and the second straight win for Kerber who lost serve four times but grabbed no less than seven breaks to erase that deficit, winning 60% of the return points against the rival who had nothing more left in the tank after a great couple of weeks she enjoyed. The Swiss opened the match with a break before losing serve at love in game four after a double fault, bringing Kerber back to the positive side of the scoreboard. A backhand down the line winner sent Belinda 3-2 up and she fired a service winner for a hold at 15 in game six and even a more significant advantage. The problem is, that was all we saw from the youngster in the opener as Angelique claimed four straight games to steal the first set 6-4. She broke back in game eight following a backhand error from Belinda and clinched the set with another break in game ten, building the momentum before the rest of the encounter. The second set offered five breaks in the opening six games and it was the German who controlled the pace of the scoreboard, delivering four easy breaks and moving into the final when Belinda hit a double fault in game eight.<doc-sep>Indian Wells: Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu has hammered two-time grand slam champion Garbine Muguruza to advance to the semi-finals of the WTA Premier event at Indian Wells. The 18-year-old wildcard won 83 per cent of her first serve points, more than double that of the 20th-seeded Spaniard, and converted five of seven break-point opportunities in the 6-0, 6-1 blowout. Canada's Bianca Andreescu had a scorching win at Indian Wells. Credit:AP "It's incredible what I've achieved the last couple months and I think that's the best tennis, one of the best matches I've ever played," Andreescu said. She claimed the match with a forehand winner after just 52 minutes.<doc-sep>
Incredible stuff from Bianca Andreescu from Canada that beats Elina Svitolina after playing an amazing semifinal to reach her second WTA final after Auckland. The match The beginning for Bianca wasn’t that great as the youngster was trailing on a 0-3 scoreline against Svitolina as the Canadian was clearly struggling with nerves. However, as soon as Andreescu managed to tune-in, she came back like a tornado to win the following 7 games and grab a strong 6-3 1-0 lead. Nevertheless, you can never rule out Svitolina that found the way to get back in the game and conquer herself 6 of the following 7 games and bring the affair to the decider. The third set was a big tennis drama. Even if Andreescu was always leading it was clear that she was struggling with her fitness. Bianca got a 3-1 lead, but when Svitolina made it even (3-3), it seemed as the Ukrainian was ready to win this semifinal. However, Andreescu conquered a crucial break in the following game (4-3), and even more importantly she held the next service game after being 0-40 down. Svitolina held the following game after saving a match point and then everything went down to the last game. Bianca faced again 2 consecutive break points (15-40), but she managed to recover in style. After not converting another couple of match points, Bianca saved yet another break point. That was it! The youngster didn’t miss the chance to win her 4th match point finally. The score was 6-3 2-6 6-4, and the contest ended after 2 hours and 12 minutes. Bianca will face either Belinda Bencic or Angelique Kerber in the final.