Bianca Andreescu had a very difficult draw at the 2023 Roland Garros but she overcame the challenge from Victoria Azarenka.
Both Grand Slam champions were quite unlucky because the Canadian is unseeded and that created a chance for this highly-anticipated first-round meeting in the French capital. In the past, the two never met before on the WTA Tour, and so the match was really anticipated.
While Azarenka won the 2012 and 2013 Australian Open, Andreescu triumphed at the 2019 US Open, so the clay-court setting probably wasn't ideal for this meeting, but it still delivered a spectacular match at Court Simonne-Mathieu.
The Canadian, who recently attempted to learn a tweener, had the first two break points in the match, but she couldn't use her chances, and that soon created chances for her opponent. Azarenka was successful with two of her five break points, comfortably sealing the first set 6-2.
The Belarusian started also the second set with a break, leading 1-0. But Andreescu soon turned the break point conversion statistic in her favour. She faced seven, allowing her opponent only two breaks, while the Canadian managed to use three of her four chances.
And if the second set was marked by the player's performance in the crucial moments, the third set was even more. Andreescu had only one break point, and after she used it, she saved four chances of her opponent.
Azarenka troubled the 2019 US Open champion in almost every one of her service games, but after two hours and 31 minutes, Andreescu won the match 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 to advance at the 2023 Roland Garros.
Up next, the Canadian will play against Emma Navarro from the United States in an attempt to make it out of the first round on the Parisian clay for the first time in her career.
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