Bianca Andreescu, the Canadian teen phenom who beat out Serena Williams in the 2019 women’s singles final at the US Open in her debut year, is special. While this year Andreescu lost out to Maria Sakkari before the quarterfinals in the latest-finishing women's match in tournament history (the match lasted a whopping three and a half hours, ending at 2:13AM) fans have still had plenty of time to soak up the meme-worthy vibes of her mother, Maria Andreescu.
Even the most casual tennis observers, the kind who pay attention to the sport only during grand slams, took note of Mama Andreescu in 2019. And with good reason. During her daughter’s quarterfinal match against Elise Mertens that year, the camera repeatedly cut to Maria in the stands—an imperturbable source of calm in oversize black sunglasses, big hair, and a Versace-esque print top that read "Dog Queen" on the collar and which Maria accessorized with the family pooch, Coco, on her lap. At once covert and in your face, the overall effect suggested Edina Monsoon in the Witness Protection program.
“My mom's honestly the coolest person I know,” Bianca said in a post-match interview. Same, said tennis stans all over social media, where Maria has emerged as a mood, a moment, a meme. Talk about #momgoals.
Maria was also serving paradoxically status-conscious-but-stealth glamour during Bianca’s 2019 semi final victory over Belinda Bencic. Shrouded in a Louis Vuitton monogram shawl, and again wearing sunglasses at night, the attention was all on her neon-colored manicure and a ring the size of a tennis ball.
She’s the kind of woman you want to go shopping with, an unapologetic fashion plate du jour. Give her a reality TV show already!
Maria, who is a chief compliance officer for an investment firm in Toronto, graduated from the University of Craiova in her native Romania. (Her husband, Nicu, is an engineer who graduated from the Transilvania University of Brașov.) The couple moved to Canada in 1994, and Bianca was born in 2000. But in 2006 Maria and Bianca moved to Romania for almost three years so mom could run a trucking business. As you do.
Maria would appear to be the opposite of the nightmare tennis parents of the past. You'll recall Samantha Stevenson, mother of Alexandra Stevenson, who made an inspired run to the semifinals of Wimbledon in 1999 at 18. Samantha notoriously claimed she needed to chaperone her daughter to protect her from the lesbians on the tour.
Like Oracene Price, Maria is a stoic, supportive presence in the player’s box. No distracting histrionics (paging Djokovic's folks!) to speak of. Her influence has clearly rubbed off on her daughter, who remains remarkably calm in high-pressure moments, a skill she says she owes to her mother having introduced her to creative visualization at a young age.
