Despite her rival’s comeback and a short rain delay, Canada’s Bianca Andreescu won a tough battle in a first-round match at the Berlin tournament on Monday, beating Czech Katerina Siniakova in three sets of 6 -4, 4-6 and 6-4.
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The winner needed 2h 16min of play to beat the 63rd racket on the WTA Tour.
Holder of the 69th rank in the world, Andreescu believed she could settle the case of Siniakova in two sets, but it erased a delay in the set to prolong the hostilities. After a break in action, the Maple Leaf athlete made his seventh and final break in the ninth game of the final set to take control for good.
The Ontarian, who conceded her serve six times, pocketed 98 points, five more than her opponent.
In the next round, Andreescu will face another Czech player, the fourth seed, Karolina Pliskova.
Victory for Dabrowski and Shapovalov
In women’s doubles of the same event, Ottawa’s Gabriela Dabrowski and her Mexican partner Giuliana Olmos defeated New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe and Poland’s Alicja Rosolska in three sets of 4-6, 7-5 and 10-5 in the first round.
The second seeds of the competition nevertheless experienced some service problems by virtue of eight double faults and 14 break points conceded; the losers had four breaks, as many as Dabrowski and Olmos. They will face American Kaitlyn Christian and Belarusian Lidziya Marozava in the next stage.
On the London side, the Canadian Denis Shapovalov has started his career in the men’s doubles of the Cinch Championships well. Along with Indian Rohan Bopanna, he prevailed 7-6 (6) and 6-4 against Argentinian Diego Schwartzman and Spaniard Pedro Martinez. Their next rivals will be Colombians Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal.
In singles, Shapovalov will face Tommy Paul of the United States in the opening round.
