Bianca Andreescu, who already showed worrying signs in her Australian Open debut, when she had to come back to beat the Romanian Mihaela Buzarnescu, she was eliminated this Wednesday in the second round before the restless and always dangerous Su-Wei Hiseh: 6-3 and 6-2 in 83 minutes.
The 35-year-old Taiwanese, an excellent doubles player (she is number one in pairs in the tournament), can already be called giant killers. Of the 10 confrontations she has had with top-10 players, she has won eight. Among her most notorious victories are the one she achieved in Melbourne three years ago against Garbiñe Muguruza in the second round (the Spanish was number three at the time) and the one she obtained against then-ranking leader Simona Halep at Wimbledon that same year. In 2019, he landed another number one, Noami Osaka, in Miami.
Andreescu, who had not played since October two years ago, when he retired against Pliskova in the group stage of the WTA Finals after having won the US Open shortly before, he could not find a good feeling in time to continue in competition. The 20-year-old Canadian, eighth seed, couldn’t figure out the strange tennis of Hsieh, who takes all the two-handed shots and is a very good defender. Also, he delivered in a pitiful way, with a double fault. They will face Venus Williams or Sara Errani in the third round.
Sabalenka does not fail
Another of the seeds, Aryna Sabalenka (7th) fought well to avoid defeat against a difficult rival, the Russian Daria Kasatkina, whom she beat 7-6 (5), 6-3 in 1h: 29. The Belarusian, who already won in the last duel between the two, last September at Roland Garros, displayed all her offensive potential with 37 winners and won despite committing 40 unforced errors. Kasatkina has not won two straight Grand Slams matches since Wimbledon 2018. Sabalenka will face the surprising American Ann Li on Friday, who beat the French Cornet 6-2, 7-6 (6). Marketa Vondrousova, a finalist in Paris two years ago and 19th favorite, beat the Canadian Rebecca Marino 6-1, 7-5 from the previous one and awaits a rival: Cirstea or Kvitova.
Schedule and results.