Tennis Star Bianca Andreescu Took A Swing At Gamesmanship Accusations

Tennis fans were seething over Canadian Bianca Andeescu's actions during a recent match in Toronto, with some accusing her of gamesmanship.

Her alleged crimes: taking her time.

During a match at the Canadian Open against Russian Daria Kasatkina, Andrescu called a medical time-out and seemed to take her time during stoppages.

During the tiebreaker, Andreescu sat down, slowing down the already lengthy match. She ultimately came out on top, but plenty of observers were irked by her tactics.

Immediately after the match, Andreescu apologized for what happened, but didn't take the criticism sitting down (which is coincidentally part of what started this whole kerfuffle in the first place).

Bianca Andreescu celebrates during a match at the Canadian Open where she took her sweet old time between sets, which ruffled some feathers among tennis fans. (Photo by Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images)

Andreescu addressed her critics and defended herself

According to Yahoo Sports, Andreescu took to social media to defend herself.

“I genuinely did not feel good,” Andreescu wrote.“I definitely did not mean to cause any harm/distraction or whatever people have been calling it to my opponent or anyone in that matter…It just makes me sad to see that people really believe that. Us athletes go through injuries, sickness etc, the last thing I want to do is put more of that energy in the air, especially if it’s fake?”

Then she threw down the gauntlet:

"Try being in our position and see how y'all do."

Boom!

I can see both sides of this. As someone who loves a bit of gamesmanship, I can appreciate what Andreescu was trying to do. However, it's not hard to imagine why fans didn't appreciate the game being dragged out..

Look, tennis is slow. Even some of the sports governing bodies know this, which is why shot clocks have been implemented.

I'm sure everyone in the crowd wants the match to end so they can go grab a beer and take a leak before the next match. There's no need to slow things down even more, and that's what Andreescu was doing.

The beauty of gamesmanship is that it takes advantage of gray areas in the rulebook. If there's nothing illegal about what she was doing - what's the problem?

Aside from a delayed trip to the beer tent of course.

Follow on Twitter: @Matt_Reigle