Andreescu advances to second round of qualifiers

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA • Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu advanced to the second round of Australian Open qualifiers on Wednesday when her opponent Katie Swan retired from their firstround match.

The 18-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won the first set 6-1 and her British opponent withdrew before the second set.

Andreescu, coming off her first WTA Tour finals appearance at the ASB Classic in New Zealand last Sunday, began this week ranked No. 107.

She stunned former world No. 1s Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark and American Venus Williams before dropping a three-set decision to 14th-ranked Julia Goerges of Germany in the championship match in Auckland, and that run pushed Andreescu’s rankings up 45 spots. Swan is No. 181. Toronto’s Katherine Sebov was ousted in straight sets in her first qualifying match earlier Wednesday. The 20-year-old Sebov fell 6-1, 6-4 to Jessika Ponchet of France.

Ponchet had three aces and won 90 per cent of her first-service points. The 22-year-old had 15 unforced error’s to Sebov’s 33.

Sebov is ranked No. 200 in the WTA. Ponchet is No. 240.

Brayden Schnur was the second Canadian of the day to get knocked from the qualifying bracket. The Pickering, Ont., player fell 6-4, 6-3 to the 176th-ranked Kamil Majchrzak of Poland. Schnur is No. 197.

Andreescu, Felix AugerAliassime of Montreal and Peter Polansky of Thornhill, Ont., all play in the second round of the three-round qualifying event on Thursday.

Auger-aliassime, the No. 2 seed in men’s qualifying, faces American Christopher Eubanks, Polansky meets Blaz Rona of Slovenia and Andreescu battles Valentini Grammatikopoulou of Greece.