A couple days after scoring her first WTA main draw win over Italian Camila Giorgi, 17-year-old Bianca Vanessa Andreescu pulled off an upset to remember Thursday afternoon at the Citi Open, needing just 74 minutes to utterly dismantle second seed Kristina Mladenovic, 6-2, 6-3, to book her place in the last eight.
Andreescu Recovers from Early Deficit, Reels Off Six Games in a Row to Draw First Blood
After immediately falling behind an early break with a 0-2 deficit to start the match, Andreescu quickly found her range and began to right the ship by reeling off three games of her own to pull into an early lead. The Canadian’s confidence only seemed to blossom from there as she secured a second break of serve in the sixth game before saving a trio of break points in the game that followed suit to move within one game of a virtual bagel, or a virtual shutout opening set.
With the momentum now firmly in her favour, it was only a matter of time until the 17-year-old struck again as the Canadian quickly secured the opening set in the ensuing game in just 36 minutes, leaving the Frenchwoman with plenty to ponder at the sit-down between sets.
Andreescu Records Career-Best Victory, Makes WTA History
The second set began similarly to the first as Mladenovic came roaring out of the gates, only to have Andreescu peg her back as the pair exchanged breaks to start the second frame. As both women continued to go toe-to-toe from the baseline, one could sense it was only a matter of time until the Canadian would be able to seize another one of her opportunities to move one step closer to a berth in the last eight.
After the exchanging of breaks to open proceedings, the set would go with serve until the sixth game where Andreescu would earn herself an opportunity to go a set and 4-2 to the good and as she later proved, she would need no second invitation.
With yet another break of serve in tow, Andreescu would never let Mladenovic see another break point of her own as she would go on to close the biggest win of her career at the second time of asking with a signature one-two punch, marking the first top 20 win for a WTA player born in the year 2000 in just under an hour and 15 minutes.
Next Up for Andreescu: Andrea Petkovic
Standing in the Canadian teenager’s way of a place in the last four this weekend is the tenacious Andrea Petkovic, who outlasted Andreescu’s compatriot Eugenie Bouchard in three sets earlier in the day to record back-to-back wins at a WTA event for the first time since Rome back in early May.