By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday April 19, 2022
The Canadian battled past Jule Niemeier in straight sets to set a second-round clash with Aryna Sabalenka.
Photo Source: Getty
Bianca Andreescu opened accounts for the 2022 season on Tuesday in Stuttgart, the 21-year-old Canadian easing past German wild card Jule Niemeier 7-6(5), 6-3 to advance to the second round at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart.
Andreescu, a former World No.4 and the 2019 US Open champion, enters this week at 121 in the world after a seven-month hiatus from the tour.
She says the time has served her well. Andreescu has talked openly of her personal struggles to play the sport on more positive terms, and she opened up to the crowd after her victory on Tuesday evening, speaking about her new approach to the sport.
“I was struggling a lot, mentally,” Andreescu said. “I just wasn’t enjoying myself out there. Really I identified myself too much with the sport, whenever I lost. It sounds a bit dramatic but I hated myself, and if I won, I loved myself, it was kind of like that.”
Andreescu, who cracked 22 winners against 17 unforced errors and won 10 of her 11 service games, rallied from a break down in the opening set before closing it out in a tiebreak. She improves to 20-9 lifetime in tiebreaks, and 4-1 lifetime in her limited time on clay.
Most importantly, she’s enjoying her time on court, and looking at each day as a chance to improve her game, rather than focusing on wins and losses.
“Before, I just really enjoyed playing – if I won or if I lost, I didn’t care, I just was super happy to be on court, and that’s kind of the mentality I want to keep going this year,” she said. “Before I also felt like I was very results oriented. It’s either you win or you lose in this sport, but I feel like if I keep having the right mindset, just going out there and enjoying myself, preparing the best way that I can and just giving my all, I think the results will come, if I do all those things, so I am just going to focus on that.”
Andreescu will square off with third-seeded Aryna Sabalenka in the second round. They’ve met only once, at the ITF level, with Sabelenka winning in three sets on grass in 2017.
Lys Gets First WTA Win, Rybakina and Jabeur Advance
Germany’s Eva Lys picked up her maiden ATP win on Tuesday, defeating Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic 5-7, 7-5, 7-5 to set a second-round clash with top seed Iga Swiatek.
The World No.342, age 20, is a qualifying wild card this week at Stuttgart. She was making her WTA main draw debut.
No.7 seed Ons Jabeur defeated Marketa Vondrousova, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, while Elena Rybakina stopped German qualifier Nastasja Schunk, 7-6(3), 7-5, to set a second-round clash with second-seeded Paula Badosa.