French Open Sixth seed Bianca Andreescu falls at first hurdle in Paris

about 3 years in The Irish Times

Bianca Andreescu became the highest women’s seed to fall at the French Open so far as she lost a three-hour marathon match against Timara Zidansek in the first round on Monday.
The former US Open champion, seeded sixth, went down 6-7(1) 7-6(2) 9-7 to the Slovenian.
Canadian Andreescu, 20, served for the match at 5-4 in the deciding set but Zidansek broke back before missing a match point of her own in a gripping finale.
Andreescu found herself in trouble again serving at 7-8 and this time was unable to dig her way out of trouble with world number 85 Zidansek winning in three hours and 20 minutes.
While on paper it was a shock, Andreescu was playing at only her third Tour-level claycourt tournament and her lack of experience on the surface ultimately proved decisive.
The women’s draw lost another big name when former French Open semi-finalist Kiki Bertens fell at the first hurdle, losing 6-1 3-6 6-4 to another Slovenian, Polona Hercog.
Marketa Vondrousova, the 2019 runner-up who is seeded 20th this year, managed to avoid an early exit, battling back from a set down to beat Kaia Kanepi 4-6 6-3 6-0.
Women’s first-round results
(14) Elise Mertens (Bel) bt Storm Sanders (Aus) 6-4 6-1, Caroline Garcia (Fra) bt Laura Siegemund (Ger) 6-3 6-1, Tamara Zidansek (Slo) bt (6) Bianca Vanessa Andreescu (Can) 6-7 (1-7) 7-6 (7-2) 9-7, Madison Brengle (USA) bt Maria Camila Osorio Serrano (Col) 7-5 6-4, (20) Marketa Vondrousova (Cze) bt Kaia Kanepi (Est) 4-6 6-3 6-0, Harmony Tan (Fra) bt Alize Cornet (Fra) 6-4 6-4, Polona Hercog (Slo) bt (16) Kiki Bertens (Ned) 6-1 3-6 6-4, (8) Iga Swiatek (Pol) bt Kaja Juvan (Slo) 6-0 7-5, Rebecca Peterson (Swe) bt Shelby Rogers (USA) 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (10-8) 6-2, Hailey Baptiste (USA) bt Anna Blinkova (Rus) 6-1 6-4, Zarina Diyas (Kaz) bt Heather Watson (Brit) 6-4 7-5

Share it on