Bianca Andreescu continued her successful run in her home town on Wednesday night with a second-round win over Alize Cornet at the National Bank Open.
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The 22-year-old Canadian, returning to a full schedule after missing most of the past two seasons, took Centre Court at Sobeys Stadium while it was still buzzing over the loss of Serena Williams, and her farewell to the city, in the previous match.
Andreescu and Cornet, the 32-year-old Frenchwoman, started off trading five straight service breaks. Neither could barely manage a point on their second serves. But after Andreescu finally managed a service hold to take a 4-2 lead in the first set, she was able to hold on and take it 6-3.
Unlike her match a night earlier in which she struggled with nausea and dizziness in a tough win over Daria Kasatkina, Andreescu seemed comfortable and confident, although Cornet did make her work for her points. The Canadian got an early service break in the second set, but Cornet got it back and then another for a 4-3 lead. She held on to take the set 6-4.
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Andreescu took the lead again in the third set, and if anything seemed annoyed at herself that she was missing points. Still, she was doing the things that she did in her great 2019 season, mixing up shots, being aggressive, forcing the issue. It was enough to take a tense third set 6-4 in a two-and-a-half-hour marathon. Andreescu still hasn’t lost in Toronto since before her 2019 title run here.
She will play China’s Qinwen Zheng on Thursday night in the Round of 16.
FERNANDEZ FALLS … TWICE
Canada’s Leylah Annie Fernandez saw her return to Toronto cut short with a second-round loss to Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil.
Haddad Maia, the 24th-ranked player on the WTA tour, used a big serve to put Fernandez, who is ranked 13th but playing her first tournament after a two-month injury layoff, on the defensive.
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The Brazilian won more than three-quarters of her service points in the straight-sets win (7-6, 6-1) and never faced a break point. Fernandez faced nine break points, although she managed to save five of them.
Haddad Maia took a lead in the first set with an early break, but Fernandez fought back late to send the set to a tie-breaker. The match turned when the Canadian lost four straight points in the tiebreak, and Haddad Maia was able to win it 7-4. She then made short work of the second set.
After a short rest, Fernandez was back on the courts at the National Bank Open to play doubles alongside her younger sister, Bianca. The sisters lost that one, too.
“It’s a little hard today because we just finished with two losses,” said Fernandez, who was only cleared to resumed play on her injured foot last week. “But no, I think I’m just happy that I finally was back in competition and that we not only tested out the foot but also the body,” she said.
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“And the body feels great. Of course, not at the level that we want it to be, but at least we know what we need to work on. So that’s the main thing.”
Fernandez is scheduled to play in Cincinnati next week in the final tune-up before the U.S. Open, where she arrived on the tennis main stage last year in grand style with a run to the final, losing there to Emma Raducanu.
The Fernandez sisters won their opening match on Tuesday, and it was Bianca’s first win of any sort at the WTA level.
“I was just so happy to be on court with her,” Leylah Fernandez said of Bianca, who at 18 is one year her junior.
“And this time on the same side of the net, not face-to-face playing against each other or practicing against each other.”
SWIATEK CRUISES
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After Serena Williams’ farewell essay was published on Tuesday, players at the National Bank Open have all been asked about the legend in their post-match press conferences. World number one Iga Swiatek, who at 21 years old has caught just the twilight of Williams’ career as a contemporary, said she was “pretty sad on one hand” that she was unable to be on tour “when she was winning everything.”
“But on the other hand, I would probably have been the player that loses to her in the quarterfinals, so I’m OK with that,” Swiatek said. Points for honesty.
Swiatek didn’t play her first match in Toronto until Wednesday afternoon, where she cruised past qualifier Alja Tomljanovic in straight sets (6-1, 6-2). She’ll face Beatriz Haddad Maia in the Round of 16.
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Asked about returning to Toronto for the first time since she was a teenager, now the top-ranked player in the world, Swiatek replied: “I feel like I’m not geeky any more, like I was a few years ago.”
Points for honesty, again.
‘MOM MODE’
After Serena Williams won her match here on Monday, she said she was surprised to see her daughter, Olympia, watching from the stands.
“I looked over and I saw her in the first middle of the first set and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, why is she here? And then I went into mom mode, like, ‘does she have on her sun cream?’”
Williams said she managed to leave her alone. It was the first time, she said, that her daughter watched one of her matches in person.
“So it’s kind of cool that it happened in Toronto, but I didn’t expect it.”