Bianca Andreescu sees off Coco Gauff to win WTA Newcomer of the Year
By Chris Myson
Coco Gauff was among an impressive list of nominees for the WTA Newcomer of the Year award, but Bianca Andreescu was a clear winner after her US Open feat.
Bianca Andreescu has won another award for her exploits in the 2019 season, this time seeing off a talented field of nominees that included Coco Gauff to win the WTA Newcomer of the Year award.
One day after she officially collected the Lou Marsh Trophy having become the first tennis player to win that honour for being Canada’s best athlete, she was a winner at the end-of-season WTA awards.
To be eligible for the WTA Newcomer of the Year award, players must have either broken into the top 100 of the world rankings or achieved a notable accomplishment for the first time over the course of that year.
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Andreescu was one of six nominees along with Gauff, Karolina Muchova, Elena Rybakina, Iga Swiatek and Dayana Yastremska.
The accolade is voted for by members of the international media and when the results were revealed on Wednesday, Andreescu was a comfortable winner after securing 67% of the vote.
Always a likely victor, the Canadian ended the year ranked at number 5 in the world having beaten Serena Williams in the final to crown a remarkable US Open 2019 success in her first time playing in the main draw.
Earlier in the season she had won significant events at the Indian Wells Open and Rogers Cup, not bad for a player who started the year ranked way down at 178 and then missed large chunks of the season through injury.
Andreescu’s year was so good that she was also nominated for the main WTA Player of the Year award, though she did not win that one.
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Gauff was unfortunate to come up against Andreescu in this category. In any normal year, she would surely have won after making a stunning start to life on the WTA Tour.
The brilliant 15-year-old reached the fourth round of Wimbledon after being the youngest qualifier in the tournament’s Open Era history, famously beating fellow American Venus Williams in her main draw debut.
She then went on to reach the third round of the US Open, losing a memorable match to Naomi Osaka, before winning her first WTA Tour title in Linz.
There was an American winner in the Most Improved Player of the Year award, Sofia Kenin coming out on top after a season in which she collected the first three titles of her career.
Belinda Bencic was named the Comeback Player of the Year after a fine year saw her win two titles, ending a wait for WTA silverware since her previous success way back in August 2015.
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The Swiss star also reached the semifinals of the US Open, beating defending champion Osaka on her way to the last four.