Saturday, August 31, 2019
Rogers Cup-Toronto 2019
As has been
widely reported, especially on our side of the border, a teenager
from Toronto won the Rogers Cup tennis championship last Sunday.
Bianca Andreescu worked her way through opponents to get to the
finals.
She walked
on the court at York University, accompanied by a flower girl and
another carrying a Canadian flag. She waved at the packed house, but
heard very little from the spectators as she was wearing headphones.
Moments later, her opponent appeared, also in impressive fashion.
Serena Williams, the greatest woman tennis player of all time,
sauntered from the lower levels of the stadium, with her flower girl
and flag holder.
In fine
Canadian fashion, a couple of Mounties accompanied the anthem singer,
now starring in “Come From Away” in Toronto. A coin toss, more
photo opportunities, warm up rallies , serves, and smashes, and the
games began.
The day was
sunny, with a pronounced breeze. The wind was much stronger on Friday
and Saturday, affecting the play: awkward ball tosses on serves, lobs
that carried beyond the base line, cross-court forehands that landed
outside the lines.
Because of
the international flavour of tennis, there was a strong contingent of
Romanian-Canadians in the crowd. Flags, shirts, posters, all in
support of Andreescu. Her mother and father sat at courtside, along
with her her tiny dog! Both Briana and her dad had done interviews
for Romanian television. With competitors from around the world,
media types reporting in many languages attend the World Tennis
Association championships.
Serena came
into the final with 72 career titles including 23 Grand Slam
Championships. In previous matches, her serve topped 190 km per hour.
Both forehand and backhand strokes can be winners, any given rally.
Bianca serves at 175 kph, give or take. Mind you, she is not yet
twenty, so I expect that she will hammer her serves considerably
faster in the future.
For the most
part, Andreescu pounds her ground strokes. She often bends quite low,
and springs into her forehands and backhands. When convenient, she
will approach the net. Throughout the week she played some nifty drop
shots as well.
In order to
get to the final, Bianca disposed of the following: Eugenie Bouchard,
Canada: Daria Kasatkina, Russia; Kiki Bertens, the Netherlands;
Karolina Pliskova, Czech Republic; and Sofia Kenin, United States. It
took more than 10 hours to accomplish that. All of those matches went
three sets, with the exception of her semi-final against Kenin.
Andreescu
moved up dramatically in the tennis rankings from # 27 to # 14.
Williams had
won the Toronto tournament three times. She raves about the city on
all occasions. “I love coming here,” she told the crowd after he
semi-final win. Near the end of her match, she stumbled while
pursuing a drop shop and banged into the court post. When asked about
it, she shrugged and said, “You gotta take the hits and keep going.
It just burns a little bit.” As the elder stateswoman in the mix,
she called herself the “Tennis Grandma.”
Had she been
on her game, it would have been an exciting final. Not to be, on this
occasion. Serena withdrew after trailing 3-1 in the first set. A
little more than 18 minutes of tennis for the disappointed patrons.
She indicated after he match that she had been experiencing back
spasms.
Andreescu
had been on the sidelines herself, nursing a shoulder injury.
Obviously, she put that aside when she walked on the court in
Toronto. “I'm happy to be back on the court.” And she reminded
us, unintentionally, that she is still a kid when she blurted out,
“Life is freaking amazing right now!”
Rafael Nadal
won the men's tournament in Montreal. The tour moves on, and will
arrive in New York soon for the United States Open. More great tennis
on the horizon. Not to be missed!
James Hurst
August 12,
2019
-- James Hurst 613.399.2278 sportslices.blogspot.ca
# posted by James Hurst @ 12:23 PM 
