Bianca Andreescu – Solid Service 3.0
The rising Canadian tennis star of Romanian origin Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) has shown as well as proven her enormous talent and a huge potential quite a few times on the international tennis scene in the past already. At first, it was while winning the 2014 “Les Petits As”, the unofficial U14 Junior World Indoor Championships being played in the Southern French city of Tarbes since the ’80s. Next big break-through came in the second half of 2015 when 15 years old Bianca won the 2015 Junior Canadian Open (U18) and then mainly the 2015 Orange Bowl in the U 18 category (finals win against Dayla Kay/USA), here despite being eligible to play in the U16 field for two more years. Together with other results, this brought her to the ITF Junior Ranking of #3 at the beginning of 2016. Then, in between focusing more on the ITF Women’s Tour than on hunting the points at the junior events, Bianca won doubles titles (partnering Carson Branstine/USA/CAN) at both the 2017 Australian Open as well as the 2017 French Open. In her Junior Grand Slam singles appearances, however, she stayed on the rackets of the mostly slightly older opponents. After her very successful start into the 2019 and mainly after the spectacular win at the 2019 Indian Wells Masters, while coming into the event with a wild card, she is with her new WTA Tour ranking of #24 (as of March 18, 2019) currently ranked in front of all her former main opponents at the ITF Junior Tour who have been eventually beating her in the past (all Masarova, Day, Liu have to break into the top 100 yet, Anisimova is at #73). Interesting stat speaking about Bianca’s qualities is her match record from the ITF Junior Tour, where her last event was the 2017 French Open. She closed her international junior career with an excellent match record of 90/20 in singles and 62/18 in doubles. Also, her current (as of March 18, 2019) career singles match record of 103/37 at the Women’s WTA/ITF events is extremely strong.
This all was/is being made possible by Bianca’s very well developed coordination skills and overall very solid stroke technique in the Tennis 3.0 style and despite (or maybe because…) her rather smaller size of 170cm (5’7”). So, her parents (with the Eastern European sports culture), coaches and also Tennis Canada must have done a lot of things right early on. While looking at Bianca’s strokes, what strikes the eye first is her clean Forehand 3.0 technique. The “cultural differences” in the approach to the forehand then, in my opinion, belong to the main reasons why she is currently significantly more successful than her former fierce opponents on the ITF Junior Tour.
Bianca’s service had also a very clear Tennis 3.0 style with a quite sound body energy unloading into dominant long-axis pronation early on. In this article, I would like to look at her Service 3.0, which was technically very solid at the end of 2015 already. Besides the already above-mentioned very good pronation, based also on the loose muscles with optimal coordination between muscle contraction and relaxation, there are, in my view of the things, at least two more points worth mentioning. First the perfect head stability/eye control of the impact zone and then the fact that Bianca had already at the age of 15 years a very well developed topspin service, which is otherwise not that typical with the juniors of her age.
Needless to say, the ability to hit a high percentage of 1st services 3.0 with optimal full pronation under the pressure of the competition needs years to be achieved. It’s one of the typical signs of mental pressure affecting the player that the degree of pronation (the range of the motion in the internal rotation) is decreasing under pressure, even with players who have otherwise a good command of the action. This can be well seen mainly at one series of photos from 2017 where Bianca was under pressure in a tight three-set match against Xiyu Wang (CHN). In such situations, the players with a good command of the topspin service tend to fare better than the players focusing at the slice as their 2nd service.
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – 1 of 1 – follow through 1 – perfect long-axis pronation – racket is coming into the perpendicular position (= full range of desired internal rotation) very soon after the impact, eyes are still focused at the impact zone – 2015 Orange Bowl U 18 – Plantation, FL / USA – December 2015
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – 1 of 3 – start – stable narrower platform stance – most of the body weight is on the back foot – 2015 Orange Bowl U 18 – Plantation, FL / USA – December 2015
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – 2 of 3 – acceleration from the cocking position to the impact – perfect eye control of the impact zone – 2015 Orange Bowl U 18 – Plantation, FL / USA – December 2015
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – 3 of 3 – follow through 1 aka targeted long-axis pronation – end – full body energy unloading also thanks to the well-controlled position of the non-dominant (left) arm – 2015 Orange Bowl U 18 – Plantation, FL / USA – December 2015
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – 1 of 4 – start – stable narrower platform stance – eyes are looking slightly up already – 2015 Orange Bowl U 18 – Plantation, FL / USA – December 2015
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – 2 of 4 – push-off – ideal cocking position, perfect eye control of the impact zone – 2015 Orange Bowl U 18 – Plantation, FL / USA – December 2015
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – 3 of 4 – follow through 1 aka targeted long-axis pronation – excellent elevation of the center of gravity as well as control of the non-dominant (left) arm – 2015 Orange Bowl U 18 – Plantation, FL / USA – December 2015
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – 4 of 4 – landing / follow through 2 – relaxation – practically all of the energy was spent already, good observation of the opponent – 2015 Orange Bowl U 18 – Plantation, FL / USA – December 2015
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – 1 of 1 – follow through 1 aka long-axis pronation – perfect eye control of the impact zone as well as good control of the non-dominant (left) arm – 2015 Orange Bowl U 18 – Plantation, FL / USA – December 2015
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 2nd topspin service 3.0 in a match – 1 of 1 – early follow through 1 – significantly different racket path than with the 1st direct service shown above – perfect eye control of the impact zone, the non-dominant (left) arm is well under control, but in a different position respective to the partly different striking (power unloading) action – 2015 Orange Bowl U 18 – Plantation, FL / USA – December 2015
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 2nd topspin service 3.0 in a match – 1 of 2 – push-off – racket accelerates from the cocking position towards the impact, perfect observation of the impact zone – 2015 Orange Bowl U 18 – Plantation, FL / USA – December 2015
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 2nd topspin service 3.0 in a match – 2 of 2 – follow through 1 – significantly on the outside (right), perfect control of the non-dominant (left) arm – 2015 Orange Bowl U 18 – Plantation, FL / USA – December 2015
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 2nd topspin service 3.0 in a match – 1 of 2 – follow through 1 – perfect long-axis pronation pointing towards the outside (right), excellent control of the non-dominant (left) arm – 2015 Orange Bowl U 18 – Plantation, FL / USA – December 2015
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 2nd topspin service 3.0 in a match – 2 of 2 – follow through 2 – relaxation – 2015 Orange Bowl U 18 – Plantation, FL / USA – December 2015
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – net – 1 of 3 – toss – ball release at above the shoulder height and under the eye control, stable platform stance (wider than in 2015) also the starting position of the racket has changed a bit – Bianca tends to be rather later with the weight transfer from the back to the front foot, when compared to most – 2017 French Open Juniors – Paris / France – June 2017
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – net – 2 of 3 – push-off – racket started the acceleration from the cocking position, the high elbow is leading the way, a perfect focus on the impact zone – 2017 French Open Juniors – Paris / France – June 2017
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – net – 3 of 3 – follow through 1 – the pronation is limited here and this is one of the main reasons why the ball lands in the net – 2017 French Open Juniors – Paris / France – June 2017
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 2nd topspin service 3.0 in a match – 1 of 3 – toss – this service followed the 1st service shown above – well-controlled ball release in a comfortable platform stance, the take-back of the racket is delayed a bit more than in 2015 – 2017 French Open Juniors – Paris / France – June 2017
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 2nd service 3.0 in a match – 2 of 3 – follow through 1 – typical “topspin pronation” pointing to the outside (right) of the ball trajectory, perfect eye control and control of the non-dominant (left) arm – 2017 French Open Juniors – Paris / France – June 2017
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 2nd topspin service 3.0 in a match – 3 of 3 – landing / follow through 2 aka relaxation – typical topspin form with the arm coming more across – 2017 French Open Juniors – Paris / France – June 2017
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – 1 of 1 – impact – perfect high reach and an excellent eye control of the impact zone – 2017 French Open Juniors – Paris / France – June 2017
Bianca Andreescu (*2000 / CAN) – 1st service 3.0 in a match – 1 of 1 – follow through 1 aka targeted long-axis pronation – here with an almost perfect full range of motion again – the eyes and the non-dominant (left) arm are perfect, as usual – 2017 French Open Juniors – Paris / France – June 2017
This article covers certain aspects of Bianca Andreescu’s service as well as service in general only! Further extensive photo galleries and more distinct details about her service and other strokes (mainly her dominant Forehand 3.0) as well as about the strokes of other players are available upon a qualified request at drmgb11(at)gmail.com. Some significant details of this kind, necessary for a peak tennis performance as well as for a sustainable tennis training/development in general, are being discussed also in the seminar “TENNIS 3.0 – Future of the Game”, which is available worldwide upon request – www.tennis30.com / www.tennis30.cz
Photos (December 2015 & June 2017) & text (March 2019) copyright by Dr. Martin G. Baroch. Any further publication of either any of the photos and/or texts with the explicit written permission issued solely by the author/copyright owner only!! All instruction provided reflects just the personal opinion of the author and neither the author nor the CPTA accepts any responsibility for potential damages, direct or implied, of any kind!!
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