Bianca Andreescu suffered a crisis during her match against Harmony Tan
Andreescu was unhappy with her outfit. © Twitter
Canadian tennis starlet Bianca Andreescu was unhappy with sponsor Nike after publicly slamming the outfit it designed for her US Open campaign.
The 22-year-old won the women’s singles title at Flushing Meadows in 2019 and began her quest to reclaim the crown by meeting Harmony Tan in the first round on Monday.
Playing on the Grandstand court, Andreescu donned a navy blue skirt from Nike that kept being blown around by the wind, causing her to complain to the umpire despite clinching the first set 6-0.
“Will this not count as one of my changeovers? I mean it’s not my fault, it’s Nike’s fault,” she explained to the official.
“This dress is so, so bad… I need to go (change), this is really bad,” she protested, with her request granted.
bibi ended nike kit designers💀💀 pic.twitter.com/cjBqbAQRzH
— nabald | 22💜 (@andys_murray) August 29, 2022
Then returning to action in shorts and a white top, Andreescu saw off her French foe in three sets for a 6-0, 3-6, 6-1 win and advanced to the second round.
After her victory, the Romanian-descent world number 48 detailed how the outfit “was just bothering me on some forehands.”
“I just felt like it was kind of coming up a bit. Obviously the wind didn’t help,” she said to reporters.
“But I meant no disrespect with what I said to the umpire. I was trying to convince him to not take away that washroom break, because I know we only get two. He was very nice to say it was totally okay.”
Then groveling to her sponsor, Andreescu conceded that she “could have definitely used a different choice of wording.”
“So I apologize to anyone I disrespected. I love Nike and I hope I can be with them for the rest of my life!” she revealed.
After surpassing Tan, next up for Andreescu is a meeting against Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia on Wednesday.
Reaching the final of the Australian Open at the start of 2022 in doubles, world number 15 Maia has never gone further than the second round of a women’s singles event at any of the Grand Slams thus far.
