(Stuttgart) Canada’s Bianca Andreescu lost 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 to Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka in the round of 16 of the Stuttgart Open on Thursday.
Updated yesterday at 4:46 p.m.
Andreescu, who is now at 121and world rank, fought well on clay before dropping the flag in an hour and 52 minutes in front of the third seed of the tournament.
The Ontarian had four aces and only committed two double faults – unlike her opponent’s seven – but was the victim of five service breaks. By comparison, Andreescu converted just two of his six break points against Sabalenka.
It was the second encounter between the two players, and Sabalenka won the first 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the second round of the Manchester Open in 2017.
Sabalenka will now meet in the quarter-finals with the winner of the duel between fifth-seeded Estonian Anett Kontaveit and Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Sabalenka’s victory came the day after Wimbledon tournament organizers announced their decision to bar him from the Grand Slam event scheduled for June. The All England Club has excluded players from Russia and Belarus from the tournament, due to those countries’ involvement in the invasion of Ukraine.
Earlier this week, the 21-year-old Andreescu overcame nerve-wracking moments in the opening set before defeating Germany’s Jule Niemeyer 7-6(5), 6-3 in a first-round duel.
Andreescu received a pass from the organizers to participate in the tournament, after an absence of several months.
Tuesday’s game was the first in 2022 for the Maple Leaf representative. His last outing dated back to October 21, against Kontaveit at the Indian Wells tournament.
In December, Andreescu announced that she was stepping away from tennis in a bid to recover physically and mentally from two “difficult” years.
In other fixtures, defending US Open champion Emma Raducanu held off Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch 6-0, 2-6, 6-1 to set the stage for a quarter-final clash. final against the favorite, Iga Swiatek.
This will be 19-year-old Raducanu’s first game against a top-10 opponent. She had won Flushing Meadows through qualifying, when she was in the 150and world rank. She currently occupies the 12and place and could crack the top-10 if she wins the Stuttgart tournament, her first in her career on clay.
Earlier, second seed Paula Badosa defeated Kazakh Elena Rybakina 6-2, 4-6, 7-6(4) and will face Ons Jabeur in the quarters. Jabeur defeated Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-3.
Ranked fourth, Maria Sakkari retired against Germany’s Laura Siegemund, who led 6-4, 3-1. Siegemund will now face Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova, who eliminated Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 6-4.