Canadian Bianca Andreescu extended her successful stay in Miami on Sunday.
The Ontarian reached the round of 16 of this 1000 series tournament by defeating American Sofia Kenin in two identical sets of 6-4.
Don’t be fooled by the latter’s 164th rank, which has already ranked fourth in the world and already has five career singles titles. Kenin had easily defeated the 28th seed, Anhelina Kalinina, in the previous round.
Andreescu was simply imperial en route to her ninth victory since the New Year. She had seven aces and only double faulted, in addition to winning 64.7% of the rallies she started with a second serve .
This is also where things got complicated for Kenin, who posted a rate of return of only 48%.
In her last participation in the Miami tournament, in 2021, Andreescu was forced to give up in the final, against Australian Ashleigh Barty.
“The last time I came here, I didn’t have fun,” commented the 22-year-old athlete after the duel. I didn’t feel like I deserved to make it to the final. But this year, I feel like a whole different person and I feel that I deserve to be in this position.
In the next round, Andreescu will come up against the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova (18th), falling from the Swiss Belinda Bencic (9th).
Fritz overpowers Shapovalov
In the men’s draw, Canadian Denis Shapovalov was eliminated by American Taylor Fritz.
The latter, 10th racket in the world, won this third round duel in two sets of 6-4 and 6-4. He will thus face Holger Rune in the round of 16.
Shapovalov was unable to disconcert Fritz when he was in possession of the balls. The 6’5” athlete offered no break points to the representative of the maple leaf and posted an impressive success rate of 82% when he landed his first serve.
True to his aggressive, even impatient style, ‘Shapo’ placed just 47% of his first-serve attempts and committed seven double faults.
Fritz only broke once per set, but it was enough to win.
In his first match in Miami, Shapovalov defeated Argentinian Guido Pella in three sets.