Andreescu falls in second round
Mississauga teen loses three-set marathon to 13th-seeded Sevastova
Canadian Bianca Andreescu was eliminated from the Australian Open on Thursday, dropping her second-round match to Anastasija Sevastova — 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
The loss halted a solid start to the tennis season for the 18year-old from Mississauga, who was coming off her first final appearance at a WTA tourna- ment two weeks ago.
Andreescu looked rejuvenated after a brief rain delay in the second set, coming back to break Sevastova and go up 5-3 before holding serve.
Andreescu started strong with a break in the third set, but the 28-year-old Sevastova recovered with three breaks of her own for the match. Andreescu committed 49 unforced errors to Sevastova’s 33 in a match that lasted two hours, 14 minutes. Sevastova, the 13th seed, converted on five of15 break points. Andreescu was 3 for 11. In other early matches, Karolina Pliskova reached the third round with a rain-interrupted 4-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over Madison Brengle.
Madison Keys, the 2017 U.S. Open finalist, advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Anastasia Potapova to set up a third-round match against No. 12 Elise Mertens, who beat Margarita Gasparyan 6-1, 7-5. And WTA Finals champion Elina Svitolina beat Viktoria Kuzmova 6-4, 6-1 in 67 minutes.
Later Thursday, Milos Raonic of Thornhill played Stan Wawrinka, Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill faced Taro Daniel and Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., challenged 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams.
Astellar run at the ASB Classic in New Zealand saw Andreescu rise 45 spots in the WTA rankings, to a career-high No. 107. She is projected to move up to No. 88 when the next rankings are released.