"They laughed at me, I was ashamed": Bianca Andreescu recalls kids bullying her for carrying racquets at school

Bianca Andreescu shared that she suffered bullying from other children for carrying her rackets in her childhood.

The Canadian tennis player did not have a great 2023 due to physical problems, which forced her to end her season before the US Open, as she revealed at that time, due to a stress fracture in her back.

Andreescu didn’t achieve significant results during the year, with her best performances being reaching the third round of the French Open and Wimbledon, as well as the round of 16 at the Miami Open, which was below expectations for a former Grand Slam champion.

At 23 years old, Andreescu is already an established player on the WTA Tour and has three titles in her career: the WTA 1000 Indian Wells, the Canadian Open, and the US Open, all achieved in 2019. In a recent interview with Gazeta Sporturilor, the current world No. 93 talked about her childhood and the significant sacrifices she and her parents made in pursuit of becoming a professional tennis player:

"I remember there were trials for Tennis Canada. I did the appointment over the weekend and the coaches and people there liked me. They took me from the age of 11. That's when I started playing tournaments, traveling,” she started

“At first, I was traveling alone, but I didn't really like it. Then, my parents sacrificed a lot for me. They took a lot of time off work. That's a big sacrifice. I made sacrifices at school too. I didn't realize it until I was 13-14 years old, when I went to high school in Canada,” former world No. 4 added.

“I went to training about four times a day. I was doing fitness, I was doing a lot. I only went to school for two or three hours a day. I was ashamed to go to school. I had to bring the bag with rackets, and some kids asked me why I was doing that, they laughed at me. I was ashamed! But my parents told me that if I want to do this, it doesn't matter what people say. It was hard for me, but I listened to my parents," Bianca Andreescu concluded.