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Bianca Andreescu made a strong return for Canada in the Billie Jean King Cup qualifier against Kazakhstan, securing a singles victory on the first day of the two-day event in Astana.
The 25-year-old from Mississauga, Ontario, defeated Kazakhstan’s Sonja Zhiyenbayeva 6-4, 7-6 (4) to claim Canada’s only point on Friday. This marked Andreescu’s first Billie Jean King Cup match since 2022, following a series of injuries.
Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, overcame a 0-4 deficit in the second-set tiebreak by winning seven consecutive points to close out the match on the indoor clay surface. Zhiyenbayeva is ranked 1,023rd in the world, while Andreescu is ranked 130th.
“It was definitely a tough match, but nothing surprising at this level,” Andreescu said. “You expect every player to show up, so I try to stay as consistent as I can throughout the match. In this kind of environment, with the crowd behind Kazakhstan, it may have helped her in certain moments. But I’m happy I was able to produce that level of tennis today and really happy to get the win.”
Earlier in the day, Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva, ranked 74th in the world, edged out Canada’s Kayla Cross from London, Ontario, 6-3, 7-5 to give Kazakhstan an early lead.
Cross, ranked 198th, showed resilience by rallying from 5-1 down in the second set, saving four match points to bring the score to 5-5. However, after Putintseva held serve to regain the lead, she secured a crucial break in the 12th game to close out the match.
“When I was down 5-1, having the support from my team on the side of the court really helped me keep pushing, taking it one point at a time,” Cross said. “It would’ve been nice to get that second set, but the fight was really good, and I’m really proud of it.”
The tie stands at 1-1 as the competition moves into Saturday, with the winner advancing to the Billie Jean King Cup finals in Shenzhen, China, this September.
In other tennis news, Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime was eliminated in the quarterfinals of the Monte-Carlo Masters on Friday after a 6-3, 6-4 loss to second seed Jannik Sinner.
The sixth-seeded Auger-Aliassime was broken once in each set during the 92-minute clay-court match. He struggled in second-serve points, winning only 47 percent compared to Sinner’s 71 percent. Both players finished with 23 unforced errors.
Sinner improved his head-to-head record against Auger-Aliassime to 5-2 and extended his ATP Masters 1000 winning streak to 20 matches, matching legends Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Novak Djokovic in that achievement.
Sinner will face third-seeded Alexander Zverev in the semifinals on Saturday.