15 months and more than 400 days after her last match Bianca Andreescu has marked her return to professional tennis with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, win over Mihaela Buzarnescu in the first round of the Australian Open.
The No.8 hadn’t played on the Tour since the 2019 WTA Finals in Singapore where she was forced to withdrew from due to a knee injury. Since then it has been a frustrating journey for the 20-year-old with both physical issues and the COVID-19 pandemic halting her return in recent months.
Despite hew previous misfortunes, the Canadian is back on track following what was a roller-coaster encounter in Melbourne Park against Buzarnescu. Overall she hit 27 winners against 34 unforced errors.
“I feel pretty damn good. Today’s match wasn’t easy at all. I’m super, super happy with how I fought it out, especially towards the end,” Andreescu said in her on-court interview. “I took 15 months off. I’ve been through quite a bit during those 15 months. It wasn’t easy. That moment over there was me just realizing how all of that is worth it. I never gave up. I have amazing people around me.”
The Canadian got off to a strong start and got the first chance to break at 2-1 and she would break forcing the error from her Romanian opponent to take a 3-1 lead. From there she cruised playing her usual aggresive game style and would break Buzarnescu one more time to take the first set 6-2.
The first three games of the second set went with serve and at 1-2 the number eight seed had a chance to get the early break with two break points but Buzarnescu saved both with her big serve.
The very next game at 2-2 the Romanian had break chances of her own and broke forcing the error from the Missisauga, Ontario native to take a 3-2 lead. Andreescu was keen on getting back on serve and a had a chance to do so but the solid forehand of Buzarnescu saved it and she would hold serve.
From there both players held serve and the Romanian served for the set at 5-4 and went on to take it 6-4 forcing a decider and maybe an upset was in the cards.
The third set was a battle and it was actually the Romanian who had the first chances to break off a poor service game from the Canadian but she actually managed to save all three with her huge forehand hitting some amazing winners.
She would go on to hold serve and earn three break points of her own once again using her strong forehand hitting a great winner down the line. Buzarnescu managed to save two of them but on the third Andreescu hit a forehand that the Romanian returned long to get the first break of the set and a 5-3 lead and a chance to serve for the match.
Andreescu would serve it out to take the match in three sets and after she gave her thoughts on the win.
“I really do believe in my capabilities. Hopefully next match, I can raise my level a bit more. Mihaela raised her level a lot more than in that first set. I have to give kudos to her as well.”
