Home » Latest » Trending Sports » Bianca Andreescu defeats Serena Williams to win 1st Grand Slam | 2019 US Open Highlights

Bianca Andreescu defeats Serena Williams to win 1st Grand Slam | 2019 US Open Highlights

2

InfoSearched 107 0 Trending Sports

8.2

SaveSavedRemoved 1

A 19-year-old with nothing to lose just dethroned the greatest women’s tennis player alive.

Bianca Andreescu walked into Arthur Ashe Stadium on September 7, 2019, as a teenager who’d been outside the top 150 less than a year earlier. She walked out a Grand Slam champion, beating six-time US Open winner Serena Williams 6-3, 7-5 to become the first Canadian ever to win a major singles title. Along the way, she survived a Serena comeback that had the loudest crowd in tennis screaming for a fifth set that never came.

• Andreescu, seeded No. 15, won the first set 6-3 by breaking Williams’ serve and dictating from the baseline.
• She led 5-1 in the second set and had a championship point at 40-30, only for Williams to save it with a forehand return winner and rip off four straight games to tie it 5-5.
• Andreescu held her nerve, won the last two games, and closed out the match with her sixth break of Williams’ serve on the day.

An 18-Year Age Gap and a Historic Debut

Andreescu was born after Williams had already won her first US Open, back in 1999. That 18-year gap made this the largest age difference in a Grand Slam final in the sport’s history. It was also a first of its own kind for the tournament itself: Andreescu became the first woman in the Open era to win the US Open in her very first main-draw appearance at Flushing Meadows.

None of it looked likely a year earlier. Andreescu lost in qualifying at the 2018 US Open and started 2019 ranked outside the top 150 in the world. She enters the record books ranked in the top 5 after this run — a jump that belongs in the same conversation as any breakout season in recent sports history.

Set One: Andreescu Sets the Terms

There was no feeling-out period. Andreescu broke Williams’ serve early, leaned on aggressive, first-strike baseline hitting, and closed out the opening set 6-3 without giving Williams much room to find her rhythm. It was the kind of set that suggested the pressure of the moment — a 37-year-old legend chasing a record-tying 24th major against a teenager with nothing to lose — was working in the wrong direction for the favorite.

Set Two: The Comeback That Almost Was

Andreescu built a 5-1 lead in the second set and stepped to the line serving for the title, up 40-30 with a championship point in hand. Williams answered with a forehand return winner to erase it, then rode a deafening Arthur Ashe crowd through four consecutive games to level the set at 5-5. Andreescu, at points, covered her ears to shut out the noise.

Andreescu held serve for 6-5, then broke Williams’ serve for the sixth time in the match to close out the title.

That sixth break was the difference. Andreescu didn’t blink after nearly letting a five-game lead evaporate, closing the match 6-3, 7-5 and sealing her first Grand Slam trophy on her first try at Flushing Meadows.

Implications for Williams

The loss keeps Williams at 23 career major singles titles, still one shy of Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24. It’s also her fourth straight runner-up finish in a Grand Slam final since she returned from maternity leave — a stretch that’s included heartbreak against Angelique Kerber, Naomi Osaka, and now Andreescu on the same court where she’s won six US Open titles of her own.

Andreescu’s next move is simple math: defend a ranking that just jumped into the top 5 and prove Flushing Meadows wasn’t a one-off. For Williams, it’s the same number that’s chased her for years — 24 — still sitting one major away, with the Australian Open in January the next real shot at it.