SAN DIEGO — If Bianca Andreescu needed a spark to ignite her return to tennis's top tier, she might have found it Monday night after knocking off Russian Liudmila Samsonova in the WTA San Diego Open.
The 22-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., upset the red-hot Samsonova 7-6(1), 4-6 and 6-2 in the opening round of the women's singles tournament in a match that lasted two hours, 38 minutes at the new seaside Barnes Tennis Center.
The 23-year-old Samsonova, ranked 23rd in the world and a winner of three WTA titles in the last two months, was one of the featured attractions for the tournament, but she had her hands full with the 57th-ranked Andreescu who showed why she was a tour dynamo in 2019 before injuries slowed her down.
While Samsonova had more aces than Andreescu (10-3) in the match, the Canadian was much better on first serves (63 per cent versus 51) and break points.