Wimbledon win a strong start for Mississauga’s Bianca Andreescu
Published July 6, 2023 at 10:36 am
It took 48 hours longer than planned, but Bianca Andreescu finally got the ball rolling at Wimbledon with an opening-round victory this morning (July 6) in London.
After rain washed out Tuesday’s scheduled first-round action at the Grand Slam tennis event, the 23-year-old Mississauga native had her opening match against Hungary’s Anna Bondar pushed back yet again from a rescheduled Wednesday date.
The two finally hit the court Thursday morning, with Andreescu defeating Bondar 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in a match that ended a short time ago (just before 10 a.m. EST) and sends the Canadian on to the second round against a yet-to-be-determined opponent.
Andreescu began the match in strong fashion before losing the second set to her lesser-ranked opponent. The Mississauga tennis star is ranked No. 51 on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) singles circuit, dropping from No. 27 earlier this year, while Bondar sits at No. 109 in the world.
Andreescu has been inconsistent in her play for well over a year now as she tries to get back among the elite in women’s tennis. On many occasions, she has lost to a lower-ranked opponent during her comeback bid from a year-long self-imposed hiatus in 2021.
It took four days, but finally Bianca is safely through to the 2nd round of #Wimbledon! 💥
Rain delays can't stop Bibi, let's go 🇨🇦👊@nationalbank pic.twitter.com/lWykaGi1qZ
— Tennis Canada (@TennisCanada) July 6, 2023
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The news on the comeback trail hasn’t been all bad for Andreescu, though. At times, she has shown glimpses of the player who shocked the tennis world with a win at the U.S. Open in 2019.
Case in point, her performance in mixed doubles action last month at the French Open, one of tennis’ four Grand Slam events (Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and Australian Open are the others).
The pair of Andreescu and Michael Venus (New Zealand) made it to the final before falling to Japan’s Miyu Kato and Germany’s Tim Putz.
Andreescu was eliminated from Wimbledon last year in the second round. Heading into play there in 2022, she was ranked No. 56 in the world.
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