Tennis News: Bianca Andreescu recovered after dropping the opening set to defeat Maria Sakkari 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of the 2023 Miami Open season.
The two tennis players have now met three times and their three encounters have ended in three sets filled with many upsets. The win this time was a repeat of their previous encounter at the Miami Open when the Canadian won 7-6 3-6 7-6 in the 2021 season semi-final before retiring from the final against Ashleigh Barty. In the same season, Greek tennis player Sakkari avenged the loss by winning his US Open encounter 6-7, 7-6, 6-3.
In this meeting, for the first time, they did not have to go through a tie-break and it ended after 3 hours 4 minutes.
The 2019 US Open champion played a cleaner game after shooting 21 winners with 31 unforced errors, while the seventh seed produced 26 winners but committed 54 unforced errors.
The Canadian tennis player also endured the strain after Sakkari never gave up. Serving to win the match, she missed two match point chances and had to find a break point chance before finding the bigger serve to seal the win.
“I fought until the end and I think I played the crucial points a little better this time. But, yes, my match could have ended otherwise,” said Andreescu.
This season’s Miami Open marks the end of a season for the Canadian since returning to the WTA in April last season in Stuttgart after a six-month absence for mental health reasons. Since his return to competition, he is 28-19 years old and has reached the 31st rank in the world.
Now she also has three top 10 wins since returning to competition, having beaten Danielle Rose Collins in Madrid and Daria Kasatkina in Toronto last season.
“It’s just one more step towards getting my confidence back,” Andreescu said. “I feel really good on the court. I try not to be as nervous as possible. It’s not always easy, but I feel like I’m starting to get there and a win like this definitely helps me.”
The draw for a tough match doesn’t end there as Andreescu will face 2020 Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin who crushed 28th seed Anhelina Kalinina 6-3 6-4.
Andreescu leads their head to head 3-1, but they haven’t met since each won their first Grand Slam title, in 2019 in Toronto which was won by the Canadian.
Article Tags: Tennis, Miami Open, Bianca Andreescu, Maria Sakkari
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