Photo : Martin Sidorjak
Canada’s Bianca Andreescu fell in the first round at the Cincinnati Open to Elina Avanesyan 6-4, 7-5 late Tuesday night.
The 24-year-old Andreescu missed several opportunities to break her opponent early, allowing Avanesyan to take control of the match. It was a theme for the Canadian all night, as she converted just 1-of-12 break points. On the other hand, the world No. 60 would break Andreescu on three separate occasions, including one late to go ahead 6-5 with the opportunity to serve out the match.
Andreescu would fight off several match points before Avanesyan was able to put the match away on her fifth opportunity.
The 2019 US Open winner has now dropped two first-round matches in a row after her opening-round loss to Lesia Tsurenko at the National Bank Open in Toronto, 0-6, 6-3, 6-4.
This was just Andreescu’s second career appearance at the Cincinnati Masters event. She fell in the second round to Karolina Muchova in her only other appearance in 2021. She is now 8-6 in singles action on the season.
Both players were strong on their serves early, as they held serve until the midway point of the first set. Avanesyan earned the match’s first break to take a 4-3 lead and control of the first set. Andreescu could not overcome the break and would drop the set 6-4 after the Armenian drilled her second ace of the match to secure the first set.
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Avanesyan took the momentum early in the second set, breaking Andreescu on her second service game to take command of the match. The Canadian had a chance to break back in the ensuing game but was unable to convert on break point and would go on to lose the game. Down 4-3 in the set, Andreescu once again had the chance to get the set back on serve but could not convert eight separate break points. She eventually dropped the game to go down 5-3 in the set.
In the following game, Andreescu had to save two match points on her own serve. When Avanesyan tried to serve out the match at 5-4, the Canadian was finally able to break to level at 5-5. But the comeback was short-lived as Andreescu was immediately broken again and, despite having a break point to send the set to a tiebreak, she could not deny Avanesyan again.
Andreescu committed 26 unforced errors in the match compared to just 13 for Avanesyan.
The 166th-ranked Andreescu reached the second round of the 2024 Paris Olympics after beating Denmark’s Clara Tauson 6-2, 6-3 but was eliminated by Croatian Donna Vekic, 6-3, 6-4 in the second round, ending her Olympic run.
The Mississauga native continues to work her way back from a back injury that kept her out of action for 10 months. She has shown flashes of returning to her Grand Slam-winning form, having reached the third round at Roland-Garros and Wimbledon since returning earlier this year.
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