If Bianca Andreescu wanted a spark to ignite her return to tennis’s high tier, she may need discovered it Monday night time after knocking off Russian Liudmila Samsonova in the WTA San Diego Open.
The 22-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., upset the red-hot Samsonova 7-6(1), 4-6 and 6-2 in the opening round of the ladies’s singles event in a match that lasted two hours, 38 minutes on the new seaside Barnes Tennis Center.
The 23-year-old Samsonova, ranked twenty third in the world and a winner of three WTA titles in the final two months, was one of the featured points of interest for the event, however she had her arms full with the 57th-ranked Andreescu who confirmed why she was a tour dynamo in 2019 earlier than accidents slowed her down.
Both gamers had seven double faults and matched up evenly in most statistical classes, however Andreescu had an additional gear in the third set and took over bodily.
Andreescu advances to Wednesday’s round of 16, and her opponent will probably be decided on Tuesday when the rest of the round of 32 matches are performed, together with a showdown between Leylah Fernandez of Montreal and eighth-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Russia.
Rounding out opening day 🌅<a href=”https://twitter.com/Bandreescu_?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@Bandreescu_</a> takes on <a href=”https://twitter.com/LiudaSamsonova?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@LiudaSamsonova</a> for a second round spot!<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/SanDiegoOpen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#SanDiegoOpen</a> <a href=”https://t.co/fcXcPpK3xq”>pic.twitter.com/fcXcPpK3xq</a>
—@WTA
In ladies’s doubles motion on Tuesday, Carol Zhao of Vaughan, Ont., and Rebecca Marino of Vancouver will face Sofia Kenin of Pembroke Pines, Fla., and Samsonova in the round of 16.
Also on Tuesday, the second-seeded combo of Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and associate Giuliana Olmos of Mexico will face Sabrina Santamaria of Los Angeles and associate Kaitlyn Christian of Orange, Calif.
This yr’s event marks the primary return of the WTA to San Diego since 2015.