Bianca Andreescu is the talk of the country and her star on the way to reaching meteoric heights.
Her coach Sylvain Bruneau said several times that Andreescu's win over Serena Williams in Flushing Meadows at the US Open was enormous at a news conference at IGA Stadium in Montreal.
He said Andreescu's brief match that ended prematurely against Williams at the Rogers Cup in Toronto helped her get over the intimidation of meeting the 23-time Grand Slam champion.
Bruneau said when Williams arrived at a practice area 30 minutes before the final in New York where Andreescu was practising, Bruneau decided not to move her, so she could have a taste of being up close to her opponent.
"She's warming up there right beside Serena because we spent a lot of time making sure she was not going to be intimidated and so we're not going to start, right before the match, to give her the spot to warm up," he said. "So they warmed up, both of them, at the same place. It was totally fine. Serena did her thing, Bianca did her thing, but for me that was important."
Andreescu has had a whirlwind of attention since becoming the first Canadian to ever win a Grand Slam appearing on Good Morning America, The View and the Late Show with Jimmy Fallon.
For Bruneau, the goal now is for Andreescu to remain grounded and focused to continue her already-incredible career.
"This is the start of what she says she wants to accomplish, so if this is only the start, you're nowhere close to where you want to go or where you want to be," said Bruneau. "You're just in the right direction. If this is her mentality, then back to work."
Andreescu started the year ranked 152, and is now no. 5.
