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.<\/p>\n
The 25-year-old from Mississauga, Ontario, defeated Kazakhstan\u2019s Sonja Zhiyenbayeva 6-4, 7-6 (4) to claim Canada\u2019s only point on Friday. This marked Andreescu\u2019s first Billie Jean King Cup match since 2022, following a series of injuries.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely a tough match, but nothing surprising at this level,\u201d Andreescu said. \u201cYou 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\u2019m happy I was able to produce that level of tennis today and really happy to get the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, Kazakhstan\u2019s Yulia Putintseva, ranked 74th in the world, edged out Canada\u2019s Kayla Cross from London, Ontario, 6-3, 7-5 to give Kazakhstan an early lead.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen 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,\u201d Cross said. \u201cIt would\u2019ve been nice to get that second set, but the fight was really good, and I\u2019m really proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
In other tennis news, Montreal\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s 71 percent. Both players finished with 23 unforced errors.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Sinner will face third-seeded Alexander Zverev in the semifinals on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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