Teens make their presence felt

A couple of teenagers are shaking things up at the BNP Paribas tennis Open.

Bianca Andreescu, an 18-year-old Canadian, routed two-time major champion Garbine Muguruza 6-0, 6-1 in 52 minutes yesterday to reach the semifinals.

Miomir Kecmanovic, a 19-year-old Serb ranked 130th in the world, became the first lucky loser to reach the quarter-finals at Indian Wells since 1990 when Yoshihito Nishioka retired in the second set.

Andreescu won the first nine games against Muguruza. The 20th-seeded Spaniard called for her coach trailing 4-1 in the second set. He urged her to “change something”.

“I felt like every time I was trying something different she was coming up with better shots,” Muguruza said. “She was keeping her high level all the time.”

Andreescu broke Muguruza at love and then served out the match after a deuce game, hitting consecutive forehand winners.

“I just went out there, went for it. I didn’t focus on who was on the other side,” Andreescu said. “It really helped me, and I used my serve to my advantage. She didn’t serve so well today, so I took advantage of that, as well.”

Andreescu has been stretched to three sets just once, in the first round. She then beat 32ndseeded Dominika Cibulkova, Stefanie Voegele and No 18 seed Wang Qiang before taking out Muguruza in her Indian Wells debut.

Andreescu is the third wild card in tournament history to reach the semifinals. Serena Williams was the last in her return to the desert in 2015.

Kecmanovic became the first lucky loser to reach the quarter-finals since the tournament achieved Masters 1000 status in 1990. The 27-year-old Serb got into the main draw when Kevin Anderson withdrew before his opening match with an elbow injury.

“It will be funny that somebody other than Novak is still in,” Kecmanovic said of top-ranked Djokovic, his famous countryman who was upset on Tuesday.

Nishioka retired after losing the first set 6-4.