Twenty 2020 Questions: Is there a rivalry waiting to happen?
Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu offer the same fire-and-ice contrast that shaped so many great tennis rivalries of the past.
We're answering the 10 biggest questions on the WTA and ATP tours in 2020. The entire list will be rolled out here.
The WTA has a lot going for it these days: depth, personality, fresh faces, the continued presence of the Williams sisters. But it doesn’t have a rivalry at the top to drive the tour, the way it did in the days of Evert vs. Navratilova, Graf vs. Seles, and Serena vs. Henin.
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Where might we find one? How about the last two US Open champions. In 2018, 20-year-old Naomi Osaka beat Serena for the title; in 2019, 19-year-old Bianca Andreescu did the same. Osaka and Andreescu have played just once, and the match, which Osaka won in three topsy-turvy sets last year in Beijing, didn’t disappoint. Hopefully we’ll see more of that this year. These two women play exciting, attacking games, and their personalities—Osaka diffident, Andreescu dramatic—offer the same fire-and-ice contrast that shaped so many great tennis rivalries of the past.
