It has been an excellent tennis season for Bianca Andreescu on hard courts in 2019 and that success continued on Thursday, when she defeated Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands 6-1, 6-7, 6-4 in the third round of the Rogers Cup from Toronto, Ontario. Bertens was a very formidable opponent as she is fifth in the world and reached the semifinals of the 2016 French Open. Bertens has also had a great 2019 tennis season as she leads all players with 41 wins.
In 25 matches, Andreescu’s hard court record is 21 wins and four losses. Despite being on the court at the 2019 Rogers Cup significantly longer than Bertens, it was Andreescu that put together a marvelous start as she broke Bertens in the second game of the first set.
A major reason why Andreescu was victorious over Bertens was because Bertens struggled with her serve. Bertens had 10 double faults compared to three for Andreescu. In fact, Andreescu’s match point came off a Bertens double fault.
It was a marathon match as it lasted three hours, 28 minutes and 29 seconds. In fact, it was the only women’s third round match of the eight that went to a third set.
Andreescu will now play the third seed, Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals. It will be their first career meeting. Pliskova’s greatest achievement was reaching the finals of the 2016 U.S. Open. The other women’s quarterfinals on Friday have Sofia Kenin of the United States against sixth seed Elina Svitolina of the Ukraine, second seed Naomi Osaka of Japan versus the eighth seed Serena Williams of the United States and the fourth seed Simona Halep of Romania against Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic.
