MIAMI OPEN PRESENTED BY ITAú

April 3, 2021

Bianca Andreescu

Press Conference

A. BARTY/B. Andreescu

6-3, 4-0 [Ret.]

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. Can you kind of describe what happened there, what you were feeling at that moment where you kind of crouched down when you knew that the match was over? What was going through your mind at that time?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: I really didn't want to stop, but Abdul, my fitness trainer, he basically saved me from myself in a way, because I have been through that, just continuously pushing myself and to the point where like I'd make it worse.

Yeah, he just saved me from myself. I said, I don't want to. But I trusted him. I knew it was the best decision.

Q. Can you share with us what Ash said to you at the net at the conclusion to console you?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: She said, It was great playing. I'm so sorry. I hope you get better, and I know we're going to be seeing each other a lot on the other side of the net.

Super sweet.

Q. Really tough for you, tough way to end today. For this whole tournament, what's the emotions you take away from this event and the momentum you kind of bring out of it going forward?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: Yeah, to me it was a great tournament. Like I really fought through very tough matches. My body seemed to be good up until today. I mean, I think it was just, like, a freak accident. I twisted my foot. Yeah.

But other than that, I'm super grateful. Like this is my first tournament back, one of my first tournaments back in a really long time, and all I can say is that I'm super grateful.

Q. Tough luck today. Good luck in the future. You bring such an openness to our sport. You're so transparent. We see your emotions, your feelings. Do you think that's something that you give to fans? Also, what will you now use personally yourself -- you have spoken in the past about visualization and meditation -- what will you use to rebound?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: I'm definitely a type of person to wear her emotions on her sleeve. I'm not afraid of that. To me, it's more of a strength because I'm being who I am. I am who I am. I'm not afraid to show that.

I think that shows a lot of people that they can do the same, because a lot of the times people say, Oh, if you show your emotions it's a weakness. But to me it's not. It's how I express myself. I'm a very expressive person. It's helped me win. Like, that's how I win on top of a lot of other things.

But right now, gonna see what's up with my foot, and definitely start visualizing the healing process if it's something bad and taking everything that I have learnt in this tournament into the next couple of tournaments and just continuing on building and visualizing on that.

Q. Whether it was injuries or the pandemic, there are certain matchups and rivalries we were hoping to see on tour that hadn't happened. Now that you've played Ash, I'm curious, is this a player you envision having a rivalry with in the future for the biggest titles on tour?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: What's the question? Sorry.

Q. Do you see yourself playing Ash and fighting whether for the biggest titles and forming this rivalry in the future?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: Yeah, 100%. She's a great player. I think I'm a pretty decent player, as well. If we both stay healthy, I think we'll have many, many matches to come against each other.

I'm really looking forward to that. It's going to be fun. She definitely challenges me (smiling).

Q. It's obviously never nice to have a match end the way this one did, but I wanted to ask you as far as the tears are concerned, is it a case of because the way this match ended or is it also a thought of, oh, no, not yet another injury?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: It's a lot of things mixed together. No one wants to end a tournament retiring, especially in the finals. But things happen, and I want to look ahead in my career. I'm only 20. I'm not trying to risk anything right now. I already have a couple years ago, and I didn't want to make that same mistake again.

So I'm proud of myself for that because I'm super resilient. For me to do that today took a lot. So, yeah, I think it was the best decision, and I'm gonna just build on from it, see what's up, and go from there.

Q. Can you explain or compare your game these past two weeks with how you felt on the court when you first came back in Australia? Do you feel like you have made progress? What specifically are things that you think are starting to come together, and what still has to come together, assuming that you can recover from this injury?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: It doesn't compare to how I was feeling in Australia. Australia, I was super overwhelmed with a lot of things. It's different because I had a long preseason but it's different than playing matches in practice than actually playing in a tournament.

So I think it was good that I got matches under my belt in Australia, because that really helped me, a part of what helped me do well this week. So I try not to look at things as, Oh, why is this happening to me? Because I felt like I was doing that a lot at the beginning of the year in Australia. But I just continue trusting the process, and that's really helped me this week. I mean, I got to the finals, so I'm going to continue like that.

Q. We see your record on hard courts. Clay has been a little bit more challenging. Are you looking forward to the upcoming clay court season? Do you have concerns about your physical fitness for that segment? What's your overall attitude about that?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: I feel good. I love playing on clay. I feel very strong to last on clay this season. Been putting a lot of work in, and that showed this week so I want to continue to do that. Hopefully I can do very well.

Q. You have had your fair share of injuries, a lot of people's fair share of injuries. Some of them were quite serious. Aren't you afraid sometimes that when you get a minor injury like the one we hope is this one, your mind starts to think that, oh, my God, it's coming again?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: Sometimes, for sure. It seems that I'm kind of the only one that keeps getting asked questions about injuries, which is super annoying. I don't want, like, for me to have a reputation of that, because it's not only me that's getting injured. So many players retired, like, Halep retired too this week.

But, yeah, I mean, it's happened quite a bit, but I don't want to define myself through those. It sucks. Like even if it's something small, sometimes I'll be extra cautious, but I'd rather be that than push through it and get it worse, because I have been through both, and today I'm glad that I stopped. It's hard for me to say that, but I'm glad that I stopped.

Q. On today's match before the fall, obviously you were both kind of seemingly feeling each other out, seeing what each other's games were doing. What did you see from Ash? What made you walk away with a better understanding of kind of what Ash, I guess, does on a tennis court?

BIANCA ANDREESCU: Yeah, it's great. I have watched her play on TV many times. Playing against her is something completely different.

She hits a good ball. She doesn't play like a lot of the players on tour. She likes to mix it up, like me. That's not fun to play against (smiling). I guess I'm getting a little taste of my own medicine.

But I'm sure we're gonna have many, many tough matches like that. I don't think I played my best tennis today from the start, but you can't always go into a match feeling good. I wish it was like that, but it's not. Hopefully next time I can go out there and play better tennis, and hopefully I'm healthy and I can win the next one.

Q. Congratulations on a fantastic week. The headlines tomorrow will mention your injuries, of course, but I want to look at the bright side and say don't you feel like you have had a massive accomplishment here and a step in the right direction? Four three-setters, over 12 hours of tennis in brutal conditions and you held up quite well. Are you seeing the positives? This is just your third event back and you went through a lot to get to where you did in this final.

BIANCA ANDREESCU: Yeah, it feels like I played three tournaments in one with all the time I had on court, which is awesome considering I haven't been playing a lot of tournaments over the last couple of months.

It's nice to have all of this under my belt. I'm feeling confident. Like, yeah, sometimes my game is not always going to be there, but I clutch it out during those times, like I'll figure it out. And sometimes I'll be on court and I'll feel totally great. But that's just a challenge of playing sports in general. And I'm here for it, and I want to be here for it for a long time.