The world’s best players were competing at the Australian Open in January, while Bianca Andreescu was in an empty arena, playing in a third-tier ITF tournament with no ranking points on the line and nothing guaranteed for the future. Five months later, she is one win away from the Wimbledon main draw. But there’s more to those two moments than just the results. It’s the story of a former Grand Slam champion rebuilding herself from the ground up, and doing so in the kind of anonymity that most players of her stature never experience.

“Playing those tournaments, I think, helped me develop more tools to be able to hang in there in any type of environment. Because I was playing, no one was watching, there were no stands, things like that. I am very grateful for that experience. I think all that adversity helped me come through that tight match today,” she said, as per Wimbledon.com.

The fact that the early part of this season was unusual wasn’t only because of the level of the tournaments she played, but also because of the conditions. The ITF events in Florida that kicked off her season were small, quiet affairs, a far cry from the Grand Slam stadiums where Andreescu spent the peak of her career. She has come to regard that strangeness as an asset, and it has shown in her performance.

Andreescu beat world No. 126 Jil Teichmann 6-7(4), 6-1, 6-4 in two hours and 33 minutes on Wednesday in the second round of Wimbledon qualifying, a match that tested every part of her mental fortitude. She squandered her first three match points at 5–1 in the third set, watching Teichmann, who was playing with her left thigh and calf heavily strapped, win the next two games. She finally converted her sixth match point with a forehand winner down the line, the match ending at 7:50 p.m.

“I am just super happy with my focus, especially at the end. There was a lot of adversity today. The heat, obviously. She had adversity, too, in different ways. I am super happy with how I managed to close it off in the end. It wasn’t easy,” she said. 

The attitude that helped her through is one she has deliberately developed. At 26, Andreescu is now playing each match in qualifying the same way she played the 2019 US Open final against Serena Williams, defeating her 6-3, 7-5 to become the first Canadian Grand Slam singles champion.

She was 19, ranked 15th in the world, and entered Arthur Ashe Stadium to challenge a player who had been in 33 Grand Slam finals, with the crowd not on her side. She was brave then, and is demanding the same of herself now. 

“I am trying to make every match like a Grand Slam final; that is my mindset, with a little bit more enjoyment. To do this in every match is not easy. But I try to go in with the same mindset. Every match is important, no matter who you play,” she said.

The adversity she is drawing on goes back much further than this season. 

The long road back from US Open glory 

After winning in 2019, Bianca Andreescu suffered a serious knee injury at the WTA Finals, and then COVID further disrupted her return. Next, a recurring back issue sidelined her for nine months in 2023 before she returned to the tour at the 2024 French Open. 

Just when a comeback appeared to be building momentum, an emergency appendectomy in early 2025 forced her to delay her season start entirely. She came back in April in a WTA 125 tournament in Rouen and slowly found her feet through the clay season. Bianca then started the grass season in Wimbledon qualifying, ranked 180th in the world, with a point to prove and almost nobody watching.

Her best Wimbledon result is the third round, a feat she achieved in both 2023 and 2024. She has not got beyond the fourth round at any Slam since lifting the trophy at Flushing Meadows seven years ago. If she’s able to get through the qualifying round, she’d be back in a Grand Slam main draw for the first time since the 2024 US Open. 

She remembered the first time she qualified here, when she was 17.

“This was the first Grand Slam I ever qualified for, so I have lots of good memories here. It does feel like I am at a Grand Slam,” she said. 

Now, whether this comeback ends with another deep Grand Slam run remains to be seen. But after months of rebuilding, the former US Open champion has already shown that the road back often begins when no one is watching.