Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ontario is in her first career grand slam quarterfinal at the 2019 United States Open in Flushing Meadows, New York. On Wednesday, Andreescu will take on Elise Mertens of Belgium, who has reached a grand slam quarterfinal once before as she made the final four at the 2018 Australian Open.
Andreescu, the 15th seed, qualified for the semifinals by beating unseeded Taylor Townsend of the United States 6-1, 4-6, 6-2. Andreescu was dominant in the first and third sets, and weathered the storm created by Townsend in the second set.
One area where Andreescu needs to improve is with her serve. She had seven double faults in her win over Townsend, and many came at key times. There were also a few second serves that had no chance of getting in the proper rectangle.
In Andreescu’s win over Townsend, she won 92 points, compared to Townsend’s 72 points won. Andreescu also had 33 winners compared to Toensend’s 25.
This is the first time that Andreescu will have played Mertens. In the other quarterfinal on Wednesday, 13th ranked Belinda Bencic of Switzerland will face 23rd ranked Donna Vekic of Croatia.
The other two semifinalists have already been decided in the women’s section of the draw. Eighth ranked Serena Williams of the United States will face fifth ranked Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine. Williams hammered 18th ranked Qiang Wang of China 6-1, 6-0 on Tuesday, while Svitolina beat 16th ranked Johanna Konta of Great Britain 6-4, 6-4.
