Another title on the board: Bianca Andreescu continues positive start to 2026 with second ITF triumph

Bianca Ancreescu continues to impress on the ITF Tour. The former US Open champion has added a second title to her collection this year after defeating Xiaodi You at the at the ITF W75 Vero Beach in Florida.

She made the executive decision to prioritise the ITF Circuit after a poor 2025 where early exits and poor results dominated a hard year on the WTA Tour where she saw her ranking plummet. Cherishing the winning feeling once more, she has been committed to playing lower ranked tournaments as she looks to find her feet once more on court.

While it is obvious easier than competing on the cut-throat WTA Tour, she still has the get the results over the line, and that is what she has done this year. The first one came in the ITF W35 Bradenton where she dropped just one set enroute to a very commendable title. It was her first triumph in this realm since 2018.

She switched from hard to clay in the ITF W35 Weston, with her unable to back up her title triumph as she succumbed to a first defeat of the year to eventual champion Akasha Urhobo in the semi-final stage.

The next step for the Canadian was to move up in difficulty, now competing in an ITF 75 tournament at Vero Beach in Florida, being the number six seed for the event. Still on clay, she battered anyone who came her way, taking down Victoria Hu, Lia Karatancheva, Kajsa Rinaldo Persson and Jazmin Ortenzi before facing off against You in the final. After a close first set, Andreescu had a break advantage before letting it go late on. However, she managed to regain it to take the lead before racing away with the second set, winning six games on the spin in a dominant showing to take home a second title in 2026.

These two title wins and semi-final has helped the 25-year-old climb up a few places in the rankings. She began the year as the world number 228, languishing way below prior heights which included world number four back in 2019.

The recent success has helped her jump up 66 places to world number 162. This is good progress early on in the year, making her decision to opt against travelling to Australia make some sense. She had entered Australian Open qualifying, but went against it as she stayed in North America regularly competing in the events over there.

Her current ranking is nowhere near the level needed to get in the majority of WTA tournament, but if she continues the progress she is making, then there is a possibility that she could consider making the switch back.

She has had plenty of experience not just playing, but winning on the WTA Tour. She won two WTA 1000 titles in 2019, more specifically the Indian Wells Open and Canadian Open, showing her incredible credentials. She was just 19-years-old when she defeated Serena Williams in the US Open final to win a maiden Grand Slam. Since then, her career has not gone to plan. Injuries have prevented her from continuing this fine form on the big stage. However, she may be finding that spark back for tennis with this recent form and titles being collected on a regular basis.