Wimbledon: Canada’s Bianca Andreescu achieves comeback victory

LONDON –

Canada’s Bianca Andreescu and Denis Shapovalov secured hard-fought singles victories on Friday to advance to Wimbledon.

Andreescu, of Mississauga, Ont., outlasted 26th-seeded Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (7) in a second round game with several momentum swings.

Later in the day, Shapovalov dropped the opening set to British wildcard entry Liam Broady before recovering for a 4-6, 6-2, 7-5, 7-5 victory.

The Canadian had a 14-1 lead in aces. He had a total of 50 winners, while Broady only managed 18.

Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ontario will face Roman Safiullin in the fourth round. The 92nd ranked Russian defeated Guido Pella of Argentina 7-6 (1), 6-4, 6-0.

Andreescu, meanwhile, looked like she was heading for a routine victory after winning the first set and going into a break early in the second.

However, Kalinina later broke back to even the second set at 4-4, taking another break in the deciding game to tie the match.

The Ukrainian had a break and a lead to go up 5-2 in the third set, but Andreescu stormed back to force a tiebreak.

Andreescu raced out to a 9-3 lead, but Kalinina saved four match points before the Canadian finally triumphed.

Andreescu next takes on sixth-seeded Ons Jabeur from Tunisia, who defeated Chinese qualifier Bai Zhuoxuan 6-1, 6-1 in just 45 minutes.

Also on Friday, the sixth-seeded women’s doubles team of Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and American Taylor Townsend opened with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Alycia Parks and Peyton Stearns of the United States.

This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 7, 2023.