Bianca Andreescu has spoken out about her struggles with negative comments on social media, and how she deals with being in the spotlight.
Former world No. 4 Andreescu soared up the
WTA rankings in 2019 following her
US Open victory on her main draw debut. This impressive feat made the then-19-year-old the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam title, and the youngest to do since Svetlana Kuznetsova in 2004.
However, it also meant that she was exposed to much more pressure and negativity, largely on social media.
Andreescu says social media 'changed so much'
Speaking to the 'No Challenges Remaining' podcast, Andreescu spoke of the pressure she has felt, and how it can sometimes feel as though one negative comment on social media outweighs all the positive ones,
"Social media changed so much. And I feel like the focus is so much on that with sponsors and having to keep up with your fans and all of that. But then you end up seeing a negative comment, but you also see all these positive ones, but then you see that negative one and it's over," she said.
However, she also revealed how she deals with this stress, saying that she surrounds herself with trusted people and avoids social media as much as she can,
"I feel that for me, if I stay away as much as I can from social media, if I surround myself with people that I know I can trust because that's also hard when you get to a point."
Empathizes with Raducanu
The 23-year-old then went on to talk about how she empathizes with the 2021 US Open champion
Emma Raducanu, who won the major at just 18 years old after entering the tournament as a qualifier,
"I mean, other people have obviously had, I can list all people who've won grand slams, but haven't found it easy to replicate either immediately or eventually the expectations catch up with you and the pressure catches up with you from internal, external, everything. And personally, I'm not the biggest fan. It really sucks your energy as well," Andreescu said.