In a trench-like showdown, Bianca Andreescu was defeated by Greek Maria Saccari in three tough sets of 7-6 (2), 6-8 (6), 3-6.
• Read also: Two Quebec youth write tennis history
The duel that was presented at Arthur-Ashe Stadium showed a high intensity rating for the entire 3 hours and 29 minutes, and Andreescu got her money’s worth, by letting the victory slip away.
The Canadian faced a tough opponent whose vocabulary and blatant mathematical abilities lacked. Every time Andreescu, the seventh-ranked WTA tennis player, outplayed his opponent, she retaliated, bounced back, and gave all the misery to the one-sheet actor.
Andreescu obviously had a hard time dealing with this strength of character, but she finally borrowed a chapter from Sakkari’s (18th) book. After she was broken early in the second set and fell 2-0 in it, she went an extra mile to force her to break the tie, after her opponent was hers. She played the trick in the first round.
The winner will face the fourth world racket Karolina Pliskova in the next round. She defeated the Russian Czech Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (15) in two sets 7-5, 6-4.
The Canadian would often send tricky mediocre balls into the net, which made it difficult for her throughout the match.