Wimbledon win would whisk Mississauga tennis star back into elite company

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Published June 30, 2023 at 4:38 pm

It’s fair to say Bianca Andreescu doesn’t appear as if she’s ready to get on a roll and make a run at Wimbledon next week in London, England.

The 23-year-old Mississauga native, who’s been inconsistent in her play for well over a year now as she tries to get back among the elite in women’s tennis, lost in round of 16 action on Tuesday (June 27) to Spain’s Rebeka Masarova (3-6, 2-6) at a Wimbledon tune-up tournament in Germany.

It marked one of the many times Andreescu has lost to a lower-ranked opponent during her comeback bid from a year-long self-imposed hiatus in 2021.

The Canadian, who has fallen to No. 51 on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) circuit from No. 27 earlier this year, was the No. 5 seed this week at the Bad Homburg Open.

Masarova, WTA No. 69 and unseeded at this week’s tournament, got past Andreescu in convincing fashion.

Now, Andreescu is focusing on Wimbledon, which for her gets underway Tuesday (July 4) in London.

The Mississauga tennis star will take on Hungary’s Anna Bondar (WTA No. 109) in first-round action in a match that begins at 6 a.m. (EST).

Andreescu was eliminated from Wimbledon last year in the second round. Heading into play there in 2022, she was ranked No. 56 in the world.

The news on the comeback trail hasn’t been all bad for Andreescu, though. At times, she has shown glimpses of the player who shocked the tennis world with a win at the U.S. Open in 2019.

Case in point, her performance in mixed doubles action earlier this month at the French Open, one of tennis’ four Grand Slam events (Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and Australian Open are the others).

The pair of Andreescu and Michael Venus (New Zealand) made it to the final before falling to Japan’s Miyu Kato and Germany’s Tim Putz.

The Mississauga native was trying to become the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam title in both singles and doubles play.

Also at the French Open, Andreescu was eliminated in singles action in the third round. Ranked No. 42 at the time, the Canadian has fallen nine spots in WTA rankings since.

Andreescu had never before reached the third round at the Grand Slam tourney in Parish, so that was a silver lining in an otherwise disappointing result.

Andreescu is still somewhat recovering from two torn ligaments in her ankle suffered March 27 at the Miami Open.

She returned to action on April 28 at the Madrid Open in Spain just about a month after going down with the injury.

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