Canadian teens keep on winning in Cali
Shapovalov, Andreescu pull off pair of upsets
Canadian INDIAN WELLS, CALIf. teenagers Bianca Andreescu and Denis Shapovalov are moving on at the BNP Paribas Open after both posted upsets on Tuesday.
Andreescu, 18, improved to 25-3 in the 2019 season with a 7-5, 6-2 win over No. 18 seed Wang Qiang of China in a round-of-16 match.
Later, the 24th-seeded Shapovalov, 19, downed No. 10 Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-4, 6-2 in a third-round men’s match.
Andreescu, of Mississauga, Ont., will face No. 20 Garbine Muguruza of Spain in the quarter-finals. Muguruza downed No. 7 Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 5-7, 6-1, 6-4 on Tuesday.
Shapovalov, of Richmond Hill, Ont., will square off with unseeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland in the round of 16.
Andreescu’s win over Qiang was her second against a seeded player at the event. She beat No. 32 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in the second round.
Andreescu has jumped to No. 60 in the world rankings after her quick start to 2019, highlighted by a run to the final at the season-opening tournament in Auckland, New Zealand. Tournament organizers in Indian Wells rewarded Andreescu by giving her a wild card into the event
Andreescu broke Qiang in her first service game and then did it again to take a 6-5 lead before finishing off the set on serve.
The Canadian once again broke Qiang in the first service game of the second set. Andreescu appeared to be in danger of giving that advantage back when she fell behind 0-40 with a 3-2 lead, then won five straight points for a huge hold.
“I think that was a really crucial game,” Andreescu said. “I didn’t think I served well at the beginning of the game. I think I relaxed a bit too much, but then I’m like ‘Screw this’ (and) I just went for it and ran like crazy.”
Montreal teen Felix Auger-Aliassime dropped a thrilling three-setter in a tiebreak against Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan on Monday night. The Montreal native fought back from a 5-1 deficit in the third set, but fell 7-5 in the tiebreak.
No. 13 seed Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., will face unseeded German Jan-Lennard Struff in a round-of-16 match expected to be played Wednesday.
In women’s doubles, No. 5 seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and Yifan Xu of China won 6-3, 6-2 in their quarter-final match against Darija Jurak of Croatia and Raluca Olaru of Romania.