Mississauga tennis star advances deep into tourney in Thailand

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Published February 2, 2023 at 11:56 am

bianca_andreescu

As the top seed at the Thailand Open tennis tournament, Mississauga’s Bianca Andreescu has her sights set on what would be her first tourney victory in more than three years.

However, the 22-year-old Canadian, who has climbed to No. 42 in Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) rankings as she battles to again be included among the tennis elite, has much work to do before such a scenario comes to fruition.

She’ll square off tomorrow morning (Feb. 3) on centre court in quarter-final action against Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk (WTA No. 60), the tournament’s No. 5 seed. The match gets underway at 6:15 a.m. EST.

Andreescu, a Grand Slam champ thanks to a stunning U.S. Open victory in 2019, continues her comeback bid after an extended period away from tennis in 2021.

Earlier this week in Hua Hin, Thailand, she defeated England’s Harriet Dart (WTA No. 104) 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday and Russia’s Anastasia Zakharova (WTA No. 186) 6-2, 7-5 on Wednesday to advance to the final eight on Friday.

The Mississaugan improved her career record against Dart to 3-1.

Andreescu was consistent on both sides of the court, winning 56 per cent of service points and 56.1 per cent of return points.

She had two aces to Dart’s none.

In late January, Andreescu advanced to the second round of the Australian Open, beating 25th seed Marie Bouzkova (Czechia) in the first round before falling to WTA No. 86 Cristina Bucsa (Spain).

Last October, in what has become a familiar script, Andreescu was once again eliminated from a tournament after racking up impressive victories at the outset.

The Canadian tennis star has battled inconsistency as she tries to work her way back into the WTA upper rankings.

Andreescu remains in search of a tournament victory as she seeks to return to the top of the women’s singles rankings. She climbed to as high as No. 4 in WTA rankings in late 2019 after shocking the tennis world with her U.S. Open victory earlier the same year.

 

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