Andreescu into third round at Rogers Cup
TORONTO — Canadian Bianca Andreescu withstood a marathon match on Wednesday to advance to the third round of the Rogers Cup.
Andreescu edged Russia’s Daria Kasatkina 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 in a match that lasted two hours 40 minutes on centre court.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., competing in just her third match since March because of a shoulder injury, appeared to run out of gas in the third set in front of a half-filled day session crowd at Aviva Centre.
But she shook off the fatigue to break Kasatkina twice – first to tie it 5-all, then again for the 7-5 victory after hitting a trio of big forehand winners in the final game.
Andreescu began the set by going up 3-1, then lost back-to-back service games to give the No. 40-ranked Kasatkina a temporary 4-3 lead.
The match was Andreescu’s second straight three-setter of the tournament. She had advanced to the second round by beating Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., in a lengthy all-Canadian centre-court clash Tuesday night.
Andreescu, who improved to 23-4 with the win, entered the Rogers Cup ranked No. 27. She will play No. 5 seed Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands in the third round.
She began the year at No. 107 and skyrocketed up the standings thanks to a fantastic start to the season – which included her first WTA title at Indian Wells in March. Andreescu reached a career-high No. 22 in May.
Kasatkina, a former top-10 player, dropped to 8-15 on the year.
Earlier Wednesday, Wimbledon champion Simona Halep of Romania defeated American qualifier Jennifer Brady 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (5) in a back-and-forth second-round match.
Halep, who won the 2018 Rogers Cup title in Montreal, was up 4-0 in the third set before Brady stormed back by winning five straight games.
The No. 4 Halep broke the 76th-ranked Brady for a third time in the set to go up 6-5, but the former world No. 1 was broken right back to set up the tiebreak. The match lasted two hours 29 minutes. “It was a very, very tough one,” said Halep, who’ll face either Svetlana Kuznetsova or Donna Vekic in the third round.
“I expected it because I knew that she’s going to serve big and also the forehand is big. I didn’t feel 100 per cent ready for the tournament because I had a long break (after Wimbledon).
“But I’m really pleased with the way it was today, the fact that I fought till the end.”
Karolina Pliskova, another former world No. 1, continued her bid to get back to the top spot, advancing to the third round with a 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-2 win over American qualifier Alison Riske in the first match of the day on centre court.
The Czech native, who is now ranked third, could reclaim the No. 1 spot this week with a good run at the US$2.83 million WTA Tour Premier 5 event.
No. 2 Naomi Osaka advanced when Tatjana Marie retired with a back injury, temporarily allowing the 21-year-old from Japan to overtake the No. 1 ranking from Ashleigh Barty of Australia. Barty, a semifinalist at the tournament last year in Montreal, dropped her opener on Tuesday.
The top eight seeds got first-round byes. In other action Wednesday, No. 16 seed Anett Kontaveit of Estonia advanced to the third round after Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain retired with a hip injury while trailing 7-5, 3-1, and former world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus was eliminated with a 7-5, 7-5 loss to Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine.
Kontaveit will face Pliskova on Thursday while Yastremska takes on American Sofia Kenin.
Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, the 2017 Rogers Cup winner, moved on with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Katerina Siniakova, and 2015 champion Belinda Bencic of Switzerland edged Julia Goerges 5-7, 6-3, 6-4. Bencic and Svitolina will face each other in the third round.
Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko and Ekaterina Alexandrova also advanced.
American star Serena Williams was slated to play her opening match later Wednesday against Elise Mertens.
Carolina Wozniacki had the late start against qualifier Iga Swiatek.