Bianca Andreescu advances to first Grand Slam semifinals

Canada’s Bianca Andreescu has advanced to the semifinals at the U.S. Open, defeating Elise Mertens of Belgium in three sets, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.

The 15th seed dropped a set for the first time in the tournament, but recovered to improve to 31-4 with two titles this season.

It was the 12th consecutive three-set victory for the Canadian, who moved into her first career Grand Slam semifinal against No. 13 seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.

“This is honestly so crazy,” she said in her televised post-match interview on court. “A year ago I was in the qualifying round. I was suffering from a back injury. And now, what I’ve accomplished this year, I’m speechless.

“I need someone to pinch me right now. Is this real life?”

Andreescu, making her first appearance at the U.S. Open, is the first Canadian woman to reach the semifinals of the final Grand Slam of the season in singles since Carling Bassett in 1984.

She joins Venus Williams, Chris Evert and Pam Shriver as only the fourth woman to make it to a U.S. Open semifinal in their first appearance.

The 19-year-old becomes the youngest semifinalist at Flushing Meadows since Caroline Wozniacki was also 19 when she was the runner-up in 2009.

Believe it, Bianca

The 19-year old ???????? becomes the first teenager to reach the US Open SFs since 2009.@Bandreescu_ | #USOpen pic.twitter.com/RZ4pgCF2vO

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 5, 2019

In the early going, everything went right for Mertens, who clipped lines with regularity. The unforced errors piled up for Andreescu.

Mertens won 82 per cent of the points on her own second serve in that first set. Andreescu had to settle for a 26 per cent success rate.

She did her best to pump herself up, though. And she cleaned up her game significantly even as Mertens’s level dropped from the championship level she displayed in the first set.

Bianca breaks ????@Bandreescu_ takes the lead in the second set, looking to force a decider in Ashe tonight…#USOpen pic.twitter.com/AUCXophgH6

— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 5, 2019

Andreescu has had plenty of slow starts in 2019, and has built a reputation for turning things around.

She has 43 matches wins on the season, and needed three sets to win 17 of those. Of those three-set wins, 10 came after she lost the first set.

Should Andreescu manage to get past Bencic and into finals, she could set up a rematch with Serena Williams, who was forced to retire in their Rogers Cup final last month.

Williams, a six-time U.S. Open champion, will face fifth-seeded Elina Svitolina in the other semifinal.

Andreescu will end up in the top 10 when the new rankings come out Monday.

She should end up no lower than No. 9. Either Svitolina or Williams can still pass her. But not both, as they’ll meet in the semifinals Thursday night.

Files from The Canadian Press were used in this report