Bianca Andreescu Advances to Rogers Cup Quarterfinals

Canada’s Bianca Andreescu has advanced to the Rogers Cup quarterfinals on Thursday after defeating fifth seeded Kiki Bertens in a match that ended with a  6-1, 6-7, 6-4  win in favour of Andreescu.

Andreescu will now head to the quarterfinals where she will face the Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova, a former No.1 seeded player. Andreescu was able to capitalize in the third set earning her fourth match point after Bertens hit straight double fault, and with it, Andreescu became the fifth woman from Canada to advance to the quarterfinals since 1979.

The tournament has not been easy for Bianca Andreescu, who has yet to play a match that hasn’t gone three sets. It was looking promising that might end on Thursday after she dominated the first set going up 5-1, but her second set saw her at a slower pace which resulted in her going down 3-0 before coming back to tie it 3-3. However, Bertens fought back hard and managed to win the set.

The Mississauga native has an 80% first-serve percentage in the first set, but that dropped to 52% in the second. This was the first time Andreescu and Kiki Bertens have faced each other but with her last four matches all being wins, including one against Angelique Kerber and her subsequent winning the Indian Wells final in March of this year.

Andreescu seems to have fully recovered from a shoulder injury she suffered in May and have in the last two days seen over five hours of play. That included matches against Eugenie Bouchard on Tuesday and Daria Kasatkina on Wednesday night. Her match against Kasatkina looked like it might be her last of the tournament before she rallied back and won four games in a row.

WTA

In other women’s action on Thursday, Karolina Pliskova eliminated Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit 6-3, 7-5 to advance. She also on Wednesday defeated American Alison Riske but felt her game on Thursday was improved. Pliskova, who is ranked 3rd could see her jump back in the No.1 spot should she adance to the semi or finals this week. This is the second time she made it the quarterfinals at the Rogers Cup, with her first being in 2017. Commenting, Pliskova said,

“For sure better than it was maybe yesterday. So I guess it’s going to get better every day with what I play. And I always was, I am, improving with matches.”

Sofia Kenin continues to see her tournament going her way with a win over Dayana Yastremska. From the Ukraine. Earlier in round two, Kenin put away top-seeded Ashleigh Barty, an upset no one expected, especially bookmakers such as 888Sport who had set favourable odds for Barty to win in the finals. Kenin will next face Elina Svitolina, a former winner of the 2017 Rogers Cup. Svitolina, who hails from the Ukraine advanced after she edged out Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic 6-2, 6-4.

Simona Halep, winner of this year’s Wimbledon, played and won in her third round match against Svetlana Kuznetsova. Her match against Jennifer Brady from the U.S was not as easy after needing a full three sets to get the job done.