Bianca Andreescu, of Canada, returns a volley from Emma Raducanu, of Great Britain, in the first set of a match at the Miami Open tennis tournament, Wednesday, March 22, 2023, in Miami Gardens, Fla. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Jim Rassol
MIAMI – Bianca Andreescu and Leylah Fernandez completed a first-round sweep for Canadians in the women’s singles draw at the Miami Open with wins on Wednesday.
Andreescu, from Mississauga, Ont., defeated Britain’s Emma Raducanu 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in a matchup of former U.S. Open champions, and Fernandez, of Laval, Que., downed Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko 6-4, 6-3 at the WTA/Masters 1000 tennis tournament.
Andreescu and Fernandez join Vancouver’s Rebecca Marino and Toronto’s Katherine Sebov in the second round of the draw.
Marino and Sebov won their opening matches on Tuesday.
Andreescu had seven aces to Raducanu’s two and won 67.2 per cent of first-serve points to improve to 2-0 against her British opponent.
“You never know what to expect,” Andreescu said in an on-court interview after the match. “I just came in here wanting to play my best with what I had today, and I think I did that.
“Emma played amazing. She’s an incredible player and I have a lot of respect for her.”
Andreescu, who won the U.S. Open in 2019, faced 12 break points and defended all but one. She broke Raducanu three times on 11 chances.
Raducanu, who came into the tournament ranked 72nd in the world, won the U.S. Open in 2021 when she defeated Fernandez in the final.
Andreescu, ranked No. 31 in the world, improved to 7-6 on the season as she looks to progress past the second round of a tournament for just the second time this year.
She will next face seventh seed Maria Sakkari of Greece. Andreescu beat Sakkari in the semifinals of the 2021 Miami Open before retiring in the final against Ash Barty.
Sakkari won the second meeting between the players later that year in the fourth round of the U.S. Open.
Fernandez, ranked 53rd in the world, made the most of her opportunities against No. 81 Tsurenko by converting six of her eight break-point chances.
Those points were key to her victory, as Tsurenko also challenged Fernandez’s serve with four of seven break points converted.
Fernandez will next face ninth seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland.
The players have split four previous meetings, with three of those matches contested last year. Bencic won the last two, though Fernandez earned a big win over the Swiss star in the third round of the 2022 French Open.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 23, 2023.
