'Fight for your dreams:' Teenager Andreescu says after beating Serena

Bianca Andreescu of Canada kisses the championship trophy during the trophy presentation ceremony after winning the Women's Singles final against Serena Williams of the United States on day thirteen of the 2019 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 07, 2019 in Queens borough of New York City. [AFP]

Teenager Bianca Andreescu said Saturday’s US Open final triumph felt all the more rewarding after a 2018 qualifying defeat left her feeling particularly low and languishing outside the world’s top 200.

This time last year a despondent Andreescu was sat at home nursing an injury and coming to terms with a second successive failed attempt at making the main draw in New York.

“It’s definitely a process of life. You’re never going to have ups all the time. So I think in those moments, you just have to deal with it the best that you can, which is to just keep fighting for your dreams and just stay as persistent and persevere as much as you can,” Andreescu said.

“I know in those moments you feel like you can’t. But if you believe that there are good times ahead, then those tough moments are definitely worth it. I think it builds you as a character. I think everyone should go through it because it just makes you stronger.”

Twelve months on and the 19-year-old was hoisting aloft the US Open trophy as Canada’s first Grand Slam singles champion, and the youngest major winner since Svetlana Kuznetsova here in 2004.

She stalled Serena Williams’s bid for a record-tying 24th Grand Slam title with a 6-3, 7-5 win, withstanding a rousing second-set recovery from the American to become the seventh first-time major champion in the past 11 events.

“This wasn’t the only time I visualized playing in the finals actually against Serena Williams. It’s so crazy, man,” said an emotional Andreescu, briefly pausing to collect her thoughts.