Mirra Andreeva returned to the courts at the 2023 Hong Kong Open and produced a really solid effort to take down Dayana Yastremska in two sets.
The Russian last played in Beijing at the China Open and had a really strong run that finished at the hands of Elena Rybakina. She was on the verge of winning that match as well but crumbled under the tremendous pressure that Rybakina brought in the final two sets.
This one was supposed to go well because we saw this matchup earlier this year, and it went really well for Andreeva. After the match, the Ukrainian called for her Russian opponent to be sanctioned because of her social media activity, so another meeting was really interesting to see.
Even so, it was a much closer match than people expected, as Yastremska produced a really solid level. She was keeping Andreeva away from chances, hitting the ball about as well as she could.
She's an aggressive baseliner who prefers to decide points on her terms, and she certainly brought a lot of pressure early. It was only late in the set that Andreeva found break points, and she converted them to take a 5-4 lead and then held serve for the 6-4 set.
Andreeva had a good chance to break early in the second set but couldn't get it done as Yastremska found a really solid rhythm. She would go up 2-0 as Andreeva kind of faded with her focus and the teenager wasn't very happy with it.
She did break back immediately, which was hugely important to stop Yastremska from shifting the momentum fully in her favour. Predictably, Yastremska fell apart after that, committing two double faults in a game where she dropped her serve.
Andreeva didn't have a hard time after that, as Yastremska was kind out of it. She was just missing too much to remain competitive in the match. It's her main problem, not being consistent enough with the style she plays. The final score was 6-4 6-3 for the teenager who moves on.
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