Canada’s Biana Andreescu has kicked off her title defence at the National Bank Open with a hard-fought win over British qualifier Harriet Dart.
The second seed spent almost two hours on the court before prevailing 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, in Montreal. During the match, Andreescu showed signs of rust as she dropped serve three times and only won 40% of her second service points. However, she still managed to clinch the victory with the help of a three-game winning streak towards the end of the final set.
“My goal isn’t to be on the court that long,” Andreescu told reporters afterwards. “I want to be able to stick to my game plan the whole entire match and I feel I haven’t been doing that in my matches a lot.
“That comes with experience and playing matches and I haven’t been playing many matches.”
Andreescu is playing in her first tournament since losing her opening match at Wimbledon. So far this season she has won 12 out of 19 matches played but has failed to score back-to-back wins in her four previous tournaments.
Hoping to get back on track in her home country, she is currently being coached by Sven Groeneveld on what is a trial basis. Groeneveld is the former coach of Maria Sharapova and has worked alongside a series of other top names in the sport.
“I want to start strong and finish strong so I don’t have to have these long three setters,” she said.
“If possible I’d love a two setter.”
The 21-year-old could be in for a tough test in the next round of the National Bank Open where she will play either Daria Kasatkina or 13th seed Ons Jabeur. Kasatkina recently reached the final of the Silicon Valley Classic and Jabeur reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
Elsewhere at the tournament, Danielle Collins continued her surge in form with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3, win over Switzerland’s Jill Teichmann. The American is currently on an 11-match winning streak and will next player sixth seed Simona Halep, who is on the comeback from injury. Halep has been absent from the Tour due to a calf injury and hasn’t played a match since the Italian Open in May.
Victoria Azarenka was also victorious in her opening match after easing her way to a 6-2, 6-2, win over Romania’s Sorana Cirstea.
