All the bounces going Bianca's way, unlike Canadian men's hoops squad
Credit to Author: Gord Kurenoff| Date: Fri, 06 Sep 2019 22:38:01 +0000
All you need to know about how bullish a week it has been for Mississauga, Ont. teenager Bianca Andreescu is to take a quick glance at digital and social media, where she has been the Queen of Canadian sport for the better part of two weeks.
You’ll find the adapted hashtag #SheTheNorth, an empowered woman’s version of the #WeTheNorth mantra that has become synonymous with the NBA champion Toronto Raptors.
You’ll also find headlines explaining the Bianca Bounce, a reference to the impact she’s having on Canadian television viewership during the U.S. Open. Heck, you’ll even see mentions of Coco, the family dog who spends considerable time hanging out courtside in Andreescu’s mother’s oversized purse.
Oversized is Andreescu’s personality, too. Combined with her unrelenting drive, comprehensive arsenal of tennis weapons and the mental toughness of a lioness, it’s that personality that is making her such an intriguing case of fan engagement; the kind that transforms the audience of a sport like tennis.
Wednesday’s quarter-final match against Elise Mertens of the Netherlands not only drove an average national audience of 852,000 in Canada — the most-watched U.S. Open network broadcast in TSN’s history — but a cumulative viewership of 3.2 million that tuned into at least some of that pivotal three-set match.
Thursday’s semifinal checked in at an average national audience of 995,000 and a peak of 1.5 million, breaking the record again. At least until Saturday afternoon’s dream U.S. Open women’s singles final match.
That match pits the greatest women’s player of all time, Serena Williams, the 37-year-old icon who has rebounded from an inconsistent year to dominate this U.S. Open like she hasn’t in almost a decade, against Andreescu, the confident 19-year-old who is looking to make the most of her second career meeting against the player she used to watch in awe as a 10-year-old.
Andreescu wants nothing more than to prove her 19-minute walkover win against an injured Williams in the Rogers Cup in Toronto last month is not the only way she can beat the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion.
We’re now two or three sets away from knowing whether this is a passing of the torch moment in women’s tennis or the time Williams ties Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 Grand Slam titles.
On the one hand, Canadian basketball is in its glory days, with more depth of big league talent than ever.
On the other hand, Canada Basketball is reeling because only two of its 17 Canadian NBA players travelled to Beijing to wear the Maple Leaf at the FIBA World Cup of basketball. It was not only a disappointing week for the national men’s team, it was an embarrassment for the program given how badly they were beaten by Australia and Lithuania.
There’s obviously some kind of disconnect between Canada Basketball, its men’s team GM Rowan Barrett and the Canadians in the NBA. A revamp of the business model and potentially Barrett himself is in order.
Yet there also needs to be some systemic change in the way NBA players — especially those from Canada and the U.S. — and their agents view international competition such as the World Cup and Olympics.
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