Andreescu takes apart a former world No. 1
With all the insouciant freedom of the new kid on the block, 18-year-old Bianca Andreescu has become the best story of all during a great run for Canadians at the BNP Paribas Open.
On an afternoon when three Canadians were playing at the same time on different courts, the Mississauga native recorded her most impressive win of the tournament. In just 52 minutes on Wednesday, she dismantled two-time Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza of Spain 6-0, 6-1 to move into Friday’s women’s singles semifinals.
Muguruza, the No. 20 seed and world No. 1 just 18 months ago, needed more than 40 minutes just to get on the scoreboard as Andreescu raced to a 6-0, 3-0 lead.
“I had a good day. She didn’t have such a good day. I felt she was holding back a lot, and I felt it, so I just kept putting pressure. She just kept missing. So I’m just really happy,” Andreescu said.
The Canadian, who started the year ranked 152nd, surged into the top 50 with her win in the previous round over No. 18 seed Wang Qiang.
With this victory, she vaults into the top 40.
In the semifinal, Andreescu will face the winner of a match Wednesday evening between No. 6 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine and another rising teenager, 19-year-old left-hander Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic.
If she can win that, she’d have an excellent chance of going from being a wild-card entry in Indian Wells to one of the 32 seeds at the Miami Open next week.
“I have watched them play many, many times. I played juniors with Marketa. And Svitolina has had an incredible run,” said Andreescu, who is 26-3 on the 2019 season. “I’m just gonna study their match and then hopefully have another good day on Friday.”
As Andreescu was dominating on the main stadium court, No. 13 seed Milos Raonic of Thornhill was quietly making his way past unseeded German JanLennard Struff 6-4, 6-3 to reach the men’s singles quarterfinals.
However, 19-year-old Denis Shapovalov, of Richmond Hill, lost 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-3 to Hubert Hurkacz of Poland.
“I just don’t think I played well today. I played a little bit tight, a little bit stupid. Just wasn’t able to convert when I wanted to. So just one of those days,” Shapovalov said.