Breaking news from the world of sports. Bianca Andreescu has been named
Canada's top athlete. The Mississauga teen is the winner of the Lou Marsh
award for 2019. Devin Heroux of CBC Sports is here with more on this
story. This is not unexpected right, but why did the judges make this decision?
Andrew this just in, Bianca Andreescu is very good at tennis.
So good, it was a unanimous vote. So every December 30 of the journalists in Canada
get in a room they debate who the top athlete in this country was, well it was
no debate this year. Bianca Andreescu just 19 years old, what a season she had.
So let's put this into perspective, at the beginning of the season, she started
outside of the top 150 tennis players in the world. And then in March, she wins her
first ever title in Indian Wells and then Andrew she wins
the Rogers Cup right there, actually that was at the US Open.
Who will ever forget, that September afternoon? And here's the big thing about these Lou
Marsh Award winners, it's been handed out since 1936, is that every year there's
that one standout performance that people go: "I remember when that happened."
I remember when and everyone, millions of Canadians knew exactly where they were.
I was at Arthur Ashe Stadium that day, to be the best you have to beat the best.
She knocked off Serena Williams at the Rogers Cup that moment remember when
Serena gets injured and then Serena calling Bianca Andreescu. Remember just
19 years old, an old soul, so she has poise, she has power, she has grace, and now
she's the top athlete in Canada. And a neat little note Mikaël Kingsbury
was the winner last year. When Bianca won the US Open title he tweeted out: "hey I have the
trophy here in Montreal I'm ready for you to come get it at any moment," she's
going to be picking it up and today. You know when she won at the Rogers Cup.
Serena was injured, so she won the Rogers Cup.
That was a big deal. But she said you know, this is not the way I wanted to win.
And then she played at that US Open and she won. The first Canadian woman the
first Canadian to win a Grand Slam right? I mean this was historic. It was.
And actually, I should point out that she becomes a first tennis player ever in
this 79 Lou Marsh Award winners to win and be named athlete of the year as a
tennis player. So let's go back to that situation in New York, I mean there you
are in Arthur Ashe Stadium, I'm actually seated in the audience. It says tennis
Coliseum, you're taking on 23-time Grand Slam winner Serena Williams and Bianca
Andreescu, if you thought she was going to be nervous under pressure, she wasn't.
She won the first set going away six to three. Then the pressure was mounting.
The New York crowd, clearly on the side of Serena Williams. The place was going
crazy, Bianca Andreescu, she catapulted to a 5-1 lead in that second set and
everybody's going is this really happening? And then Serena surged and if
you were going to see Bianca Andreescu meltdown under pressure, that was going
to be the moment and what did she do? She buckled in, she dialed in. When the
pressure is great, Bianca Andreescu just Rises to her greatest tennis level and
there she was and you see the emotion of that moment. Andrew I was there I talked
to her after the match. There's her parents Maria and Nicu of
course the dog Coco was there. And she collapsed
to the court. That is a moment of the year, the sports moment in 2019 everyone will
remember. Yeah, I mean at our meeting today, I said what do I know? But I said
it's got to be Bianca, I mean, come on. And they got it right. It would have been a very
different story if Bianca Andreescu didn't get this award here today.
All right Devin.Thank you Devin Heroux of CBC sports.