In a match that lasted just 62 minutes, Canada’s Bianca Andreescu suffered a crushing 6-1, 6-1 loss to Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko in the third round of the French Open women’s singles match. SATURDAY.
This setback sounded the death knell for Canadian singles representation at Roland-Garros, for both women and men.
On Friday, Denis Shapovalov also suffered elimination without winning a single round, against world number one Carlos Alcaraz.
Against a 34-year-old rival who holds No. 66 in the WTA rankings, Andreescu was outperformed in every way except for first-serve success rate (64% vs. 49%).
Still, Andreescu won just 38% of the points after slotting her first ball in play, compared to 63% for the Ukrainian. For the match as a whole, Andreescu won just 16 out of 45 points on his serve, for an efficiency rate of 36%.
Andreescu committed a total of 22 unforced errors and 3 double faults, compared with 6 winners and no ace. She faced six break points in seven service games and saved none.
A sign, perhaps, of the fate that awaited him, Andreescu lost the opening game of the match on his serve by conceding four straight points after taking a 40-15 lead.
Four games later, back on her serve, the Canadian gave herself a 40-0 cushion before losing the next five points, and the game, giving Tsurenko a 4-1 lead in the first set. .
Andreescu gave his supporters hope by breaking Tsurenko’s serve to start the second set. However, the Ukrainian gave her back in the next game and added breaks in the fourth and sixth games of the set.
In the fourth round, Tsurenko will face Poland’s Iga Swiatek, ranked number one in the world.
