Leylah Annie Fernandez will be the only Canadian in the second round of the National Bank Open.
Bianca Andreescu stumbled in her first match Tuesday at IGA Stadium. The Ontarian was beaten 6-3 and 6-2 by the Italian Camila Giorgi, the very one who had won top honors here in 2021.
During the game, the Ontarian was seen refusing medical treatment. In a press conference, afterwards, she revealed that she had problems with the sacroiliac joint, which caused her pain in the region of the back. Trouble started last week in Washington, where she also lost in the first round. “But I often experienced these problems,” she revealed.
“Sacroiliac joint pain, it’s very difficult, because it’s nothing serious, but if you push, it’s very painful. That’s how I felt in training before the tournament. »
The story becomes annoying for the player with Romanian origins. “It’s hard to keep being asked if I’m healthy. I am, but I’m not really,” she said.
In health, she is capable of the best, which she proved by winning the United States Open and two caliber 1000 tournaments (Toronto and Indian Wells) in 2019, then another 1000 tournament (Miami) in 2021.
In March, in Miami, she finally seemed to be regaining her momentum, but an ankle injury forced her to retire in the middle of a fourth-round duel.
Here she is in 41st place in the world, and this defeat will set her back further, since at this time last year, she had reached the third round. If she was counting on Cincinnati next week to add points to the bank, plans may need to be reconsidered, as she said she “don’t know” if she’ll go to Ohio due to her injury.
“The goal, of course, is the US Open,” she recalled.
Playing in front of an energetic crowd, Andreescu got off to a good start, before being broken in the sixth game of the first set to give her rival a 4-2 lead. In the next game, she had three chances rather than one to regain the break, but wasted them, a failure which she underlined by dropping her racket, out of spite.
From then on, Giorgi was never bothered again. She has not granted any break in service to her rival.
“She acts like she’s the boss on the pitch, and tonight she was the boss,” Andreescu said.
Late in the game, the frustration resurfaced when she blasted a ball into the stands after Giorgi had taken a 5-1 lead in the second set. In a press briefing on Friday, the one who is nicknamed “Bibi” said that her patience was “thinning and thinning”, and this gesture of frustration expressed it well.
“I had back pain, I was frustrated, and it just went to my head,” she conceded. A frustration that even a “We love you, Bianca, we love you!” felt good, yelled somewhere in the stands, couldn’t tone it down.
Giorgi continues on her journey, where she signed the greatest triumph of her career. She made sure to regain the sympathy of the public after the match, giving her interview on the pitch in French. She again answered a few questions in French at a press briefing, after having also done so in English and Italian.
“The audience here is great,” she said in French. People always behave very well, they applauded me too. I feel very good here. »
In the next round, Giorgi will face Czech Petra Kvitová, seeded 7th.
It’s been a rough day for the top seeds. At the end of the evening, the American Madison Keys (no 13) and the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka (no 16) announced that they were forfeiting. Azarenka says she has a “persistent” abdominal injury that resurfaced while warming up for Tuesday night’s duel. Her withdrawal allows American Sloane Stephens to advance to the third round. Keys is injured in the glutes. The Italian Jasmine Paolini therefore also passes to the third round. Added to this is the defeat of the French Caroline Garcia (no 5) at the hands of the Czech Marie Bouskova, in a second round duel.
