Prior to this week, 18-year-old Bianca Andreescu had never defeated a top 10 player in her career. Now she has achieved two within as many days.
Following up on her shock win over Caroline Wozniacki on Thursday, qualifier Andreescu has knocked out former world No.1 Venus Williams 6-7(1), 6-1, 6-3, in the quarter-finals at the ASB Classic. The world No.152 looked on course to defeat after trailing the match by a set and a break. Then an extraordinary turn of events saw the Canadian break a lacklustre Williams six consecutive times as she won 11 games in a row.
“I believe that anything is impossible and tonight I think I did the impossible.” Andreescu said during her on-court interview. “I don’t know what to say, It’s such an amazing feeling.”
What a week for 18yo Bianca Andreescu.
The World No.152 has:
Q1: d. Kucova
Q2: d. Fourlis
Q3: d. Siegemund
QUALIFIED
1R: d. Babos
2R: d. Wozniacki
3R: d. VenusInto her first WTA semifinal @ASB_Classic.
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) January 4, 2019
Andreescu’s tenacious play on the court was one that drew numerous mistakes from her 38-year-old rival, who made her professional debut almost six years before she was born. Williams produced almost four times more errors than winners. Ending the match with a tally of 46 unforced errors to 12 winners. In comparison, Andreescu’ achieved a ratio of 53 to 39.
“My goal was to qualify and maybe get a couple rounds in.” She said.
“I believed in myself until the end. I fought and I really enjoyed myself.”
Born in Mississauga, Ontario and of Romanian descent, Andreescu is a two-time grand slam doubles champion in the juniors that was ranked as high as third in the world. Her win over Williams moves the teenager into her first WTA semi-final and she is set to crack the top-115 for the first time in her career.
Andreescu will play either third seed Hsieh Su-Wei or Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo in the next round.
Goerges survives
Earlier in the day, defending champion Julia Goerges battled her way past Eugenie Bouchard 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(6), after more than two-and-a-half hours of play. The German second seed trailed 0-3 in the decider and then had to save a match point before snatching the win from Bouchard in the decisive tiebreaker.
“For these conditions it was a pretty good match. We both made the best out of it and overall I’m very satisfied,” Goerges said afterwards.
“I think the best part of my game today was finding solutions, trying to find way to come back in that third set, which I did really well.
“Overall, with these conditions sometimes you can’t do something and it looks amateur, because some balls you just don’t know where they’re coming, they’re just flying somewhere.
“For the conditions, it was a good match, especially the third set and the tiebreak.”
Next up for Goerges will be Slovakia’s Viktoria Kuzmova, who will be bidding to reach her first WTA final at the age of 20. The world No.50 overcame American wildcard Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, earlier in the week.
The two players have played against each other three times last year with Goerges winning all of those matches in straight sets.
