Canadian Bianca Andreescu keeps rolling, upsets Venus Williams in Aussie Open warmup

Canadian tennis player Bianca Andreescu stunned the sports world again by defeating the legendary Venus Williams to reach her first WTA semifinal.

Andreescu, from Mississauga, Ont., won 6-7(1), 6-1, 6-3 over Williams at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand.

“I believe that anything is possible, and I think tonight I did the impossible,” she said on the court following her win over the former world No. 1 player. “I don’t even know what to say.”

After being broken in the opening game of the second set, Andreescu reeled off 11 straight games to take control of the match.

“I was like ‘What is going on. I just broke her five times in a row,”‘ Andreescu said. “She’s one of the best servers in the game. Today she didn’t serve as well as other matches I’ve seen her play. But I took control of that. It was honestly a gift, maybe like a late Christmas present.”

Andreescu admitted she was nervous after allowing Williams back to 5-3 in the third and final set.

“I got really tight at 5-0,” Andreescu said. “I’m like ‘I’m one game away from winning this’ but then she started raising her level and I kind of stepped back. At 5-3, I’m like ‘OK screw this. I’m just going to go for everything’ and that’s what I did and it worked. Maybe I should just do that every point.”

“My goal was only to qualify and maybe get a couple of rounds in, but now I beat a couple of top players so who knows? I believed in myself to the end,” said Andreescu, who is ranked 152nd in the world and had to go through qualifying to make the tournament. I fought and I really enjoyed myself.”

Andreescu will now take on the tournament’s No. 3 seed Su-Wei Hsieh of Taiwan Saturday morning at no earlier than 12:15 a.m. ET.

The 18-year-old is riding high just a day after the biggest win of her career, a stunning 6-4, 6-4 victory on Thursday over world No. 3 Caroline Wozniacki in the $250,000 US Auckland tournament, which is considered a warm-up for the Australian Open that begins in just over a week.

“It feels like a double dream,” Andreescu said. “I’m really just speechless. I don’t know if this is a dream, if one of you can pinch me please. Honestly, I’ve worked really hard for this moment. I’m just really grateful.”

“I’ve pictured myself beating top players like this, and it’s really just a dream come true,” Andreescu said after defeating Wozniacki. “I know I have the level. [My confidence] skyrocketed like 20 times today. She was No. 1 in the world and won a Grand Slam. I just fought until the end. I was in the zone and at one point, I didn’t even know the score.

Andreescu said she avoided social media after the Wozniacki match, but admitted that she might take a peek following the triumph over Williams.

“You have to start somewhere and I guess this is my awakening moment, maybe,” she said. “I’m just really happy and hopefully I continue like this for the rest of the season, for the rest of my career.”