Bianca Andreescu gives Nike a dressing down at US Open before issuing apology
By: Richard Allen
March 6, 2010
Bianca Andreescu took to the floor court at the US Open on Thursday without her racket in hand, and with a look of utter exhaustion. After a two-and-a-half-hour practice session, she seemed to have run out of ideas on how to improve her game.
The 6-foot-1 center took a deep breath, then made her way to the baseline, where she took two serves. She took one and then, with her back to the net, turned around and threw the ball up. She looked like she was giving up.
But Andreescu knew she hadn’t. And she wasn’t.
“I have to tell you, I was upset about that,” she said to reporters on Tuesday, after she was fined $18,000 by the USTA.
Andreescu was fined by the USTA because she was too upset to listen to her coach.
Andreescu came through on the racket, just like she did on the court. But her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, saw it differently. Mouratoglou said Andreescu was “a little too upset by her own mistakes,” and also too embarrassed to show how close she had come to having lost.
It was a fine she couldn’t pay.
Andreescu’s response:
“I just want to apologize to the U.S. Open officials for what happened … I hope you guys understand that this happened because of my mental state. I’m not going to discuss that because you guys really can’t understand that. And the reason I wanted to clear the air is that the USTA gave me an opportunity to play and I just can’t.”
What made Andreescu unable to play was a misunderstanding on the part of the USTA. While Andreescu’s parents weren’t with her in Miami, they were staying in her home in New York, and Andreescu and her brother were visiting them a few times a week to make sure they were OK.
Coach Mouratoglou was in charge of Andreescu’s