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Canadian Bianca Andreescu upsets No. 18 seed to reach quarterfinals

Mar 12, 2019 | 1:45 PM

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu is off to the quarterfinals at the BNP Paribas Open.

The 18-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., improved to 25-3 in the 2019 season with a 7-5, 6-2 upset of No. 18 seed Wang Qiang of China in a round-of-16 match on Tuesday.

It was the second win over a seeded player for Andreescu at the event. She beat No. 32 seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in the second round.

Andreescu has jumped to No. 60 in the world rankings after her quick start to 2019, highlighted by a run to the final at the season-opening tournament in Auckland, New Zealand. Tournament organizers in Indian Wells rewarded Andreescu by giving her a wild card into the event

Andreescu broke Qiang in her first service game and then did it again to take a 6-5 lead before finishing off the set on serve.

The Canadian once again broke Qiang in the first service game of the second set. Andreescu appeared to be in danger of giving that advantage back when she fell behind 0-40 with a 3-2 lead, but then won five straight points for a huge hold.

The 27-year-old Qiang made her big move in the rankings late last year, reaching at least the semifinals in her final six events of 2018.

Andreescu and fellow 18-year-old Canadian wild card Felix Auger-Aliassime had been two of the bigger stories in the tournament in the first week.

Auger-Aliassime dropped a thrilling three-setter in a tiebreak against Yoshihito Nishioka of Japan on Wednesday night. The Montreal native fought back from a 5-1 deficit in the third set, but fell 7-5 in the tiebreak after losing the last four points of the third-round match.

No. 24 seed Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., was slated to face No. 10 Marin Cilic of Croatia later Tuesday in a third-round match.

No. 13 seed Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., will face unseeded German Jan-Lennard Struff in a round-of-16 match expected to be played on Wednesday. Struff beat Raonic in three sets in the first round in the Canadian’s last tournament in Dubai.

No. 5 women’s double seeds Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and Yifan Xu of China were scheduled to play a quarterfinal against Darija Jurak of Croatia and Raluca Olaru of Romania later Tuesday.

The Canadian Press


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