Bianca Andreescu played her first-round match at the 2023 Abu Dhabi Open, but she ultimately lost in two sets.
Only three days ago, the Canadian was forced to retire from her semifinal match at the 2023 Thailand Open against Lesia Tsurenko. However, she announced that she will compete in the United Arab Emirates, despite an injury fear knocking her out from the previous event.
In the first round, she faced off against her good friend, Yulia Putintseva, who got through qualifying at the 2023 Abu Dhabi Open.
Both players managed to get plenty of breaks in the first set, but none of them got that one that would make the difference, and so it had to be decided in a tie-break. Andreescu had a terrible start, trailing 0-6, and could never recover from it, eventually losing the tie-break 2-7.
In the second set, Putintseva improved her performance even more. She used her break points, and lost only three points on her first three service games, to build a big enough lead.
Ultimately, the Kazakh won 7-6(2), 6-2 in an hour and 41 minutes to advance to the second round. Andreescu will now focus on recovery to be 100% fit for the WTA 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami.
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