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Bianca Andreescu continued her profitable run in her house city on Wednesday evening with a second-round win over Alize Cornet on the Nationwide Financial institution Open.
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The 22-year-old Canadian, returning to a full schedule after lacking a lot of the previous two seasons, took Centre Courtroom at Sobeys Stadium whereas it was nonetheless buzzing over the lack of Serena Williams, and her farewell to the town, within the earlier match.
Andreescu and Cornet, the 32-year-old Frenchwoman, began off buying and selling 5 straight service breaks. Neither might barely handle a degree on their second serves. However after Andreescu lastly managed a service maintain to take a 4-2 lead within the first set, she was capable of maintain on and take it 6-3.
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In contrast to her match an evening earlier wherein she struggled with nausea and dizziness in a troublesome win over Daria Kasatkina, Andreescu appeared comfy and assured, though Cornet did make her work for her factors. The Canadian received an early service break within the second set, however Cornet received it again after which one other for a 4-3 lead. She held on to take the set 6-4.
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Andreescu took the lead once more within the third set, and if something appeared aggravated at herself that she was lacking factors. Nonetheless, she was doing the issues that she did in her nice 2019 season, mixing up pictures, being aggressive, forcing the difficulty. It was sufficient to take a tense third set 6-4 in a two-and-a-half-hour marathon. Andreescu nonetheless hasn’t misplaced in Toronto since earlier than her 2019 title run right here.
She’s going to play China’s Qinwen Zheng on Thursday evening within the Spherical of 16.
FERNANDEZ FALLS … TWICE
Canada’s Leylah Annie Fernandez noticed her return to Toronto lower brief with a second-round loss to Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil.
Haddad Maia, the 24th-ranked participant on the WTA tour, used an enormous serve to place Fernandez, who’s ranked 13th however enjoying her first match after a two-month harm layoff, on the defensive.
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The Brazilian gained greater than three-quarters of her service factors within the straight-sets win (7-6, 6-1) and by no means confronted a break level. Fernandez confronted 9 break factors, though she managed to avoid wasting 5 of them.
Haddad Maia took a lead within the first set with an early break, however Fernandez fought again late to ship the set to a tie-breaker. The match turned when the Canadian misplaced 4 straight factors within the tiebreak, and Haddad Maia was capable of win it 7-4. She then made brief work of the second set.
After a brief relaxation, Fernandez was again on the courts on the Nationwide Financial institution Open to play doubles alongside her youthful sister, Bianca. The sisters misplaced that one, too.
“It’s a bit exhausting immediately as a result of we simply completed with two losses,” mentioned Fernandez, who was solely cleared to resumed play on her injured foot final week. “However no, I believe I’m simply completely satisfied that I lastly was again in competitors and that we not solely examined out the foot but additionally the physique,” she mentioned.
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“And the physique feels nice. After all, not on the degree that we would like it to be, however at the least we all know what we have to work on. In order that’s the principle factor.”
Fernandez is scheduled to play in Cincinnati subsequent week within the closing tune-up earlier than the U.S. Open, the place she arrived on the tennis primary stage final 12 months in grand fashion with a run to the ultimate, dropping there to Emma Raducanu.
The Fernandez sisters gained their opening match on Tuesday, and it was Bianca’s first win of any type on the WTA degree.
“I used to be simply so completely satisfied to be on court docket together with her,” Leylah Fernandez mentioned of Bianca, who at 18 is one 12 months her junior.
“And this time on the identical aspect of the online, not face-to-face enjoying towards one another or training towards one another.”
SWIATEK CRUISES
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After Serena Williams’ farewell essay was printed on Tuesday, gamers on the Nationwide Financial institution Open have all been requested concerning the legend of their post-match press conferences. World primary Iga Swiatek, who at 21 years outdated has caught simply the twilight of Williams’ profession as a recent, mentioned she was “fairly unhappy on one hand” that she was unable to be on tour “when she was profitable all the things.”
“However alternatively, I’d most likely have been the participant that loses to her within the quarterfinals, so I’m OK with that,” Swiatek mentioned. Factors for honesty.
Swiatek didn’t play her first match in Toronto till Wednesday afternoon, the place she cruised previous qualifier Alja Tomljanovic in straight units (6-1, 6-2). She’ll face Beatriz Haddad Maia within the Spherical of 16.
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Requested about returning to Toronto for the primary time since she was a youngster, now the top-ranked participant on this planet, Swiatek replied: “I really feel like I’m not geeky any extra, like I used to be a number of years in the past.”
Factors for honesty, once more.
‘MOM MODE’
After Serena Williams gained her match right here on Monday, she mentioned she was stunned to see her daughter, Olympia, watching from the stands.
“I appeared over and I noticed her within the first center of the primary set and I used to be like, ‘Oh, my God, why is she right here? After which I went into mother mode, like, ‘does she have on her solar cream?’”
Williams mentioned she managed to go away her alone. It was the primary time, she mentioned, that her daughter watched one in all her matches in particular person.
“So it’s sort of cool that it occurred in Toronto, however I didn’t count on it.”
