Bianca Andreescu hits a return to Anastasija Sevastova during their second round match at the Australian Open, in Melbourne, Australia, on Jan. 17, 2019.Aaron Favila/The Associated Press
Australia Canada’s Bianca Andreescu was eliminated from the Australian Open on Thursday, dropping her second-round match 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia.
The loss halted a solid start to the 2019 tennis season for the 18-year-old from Mississauga, who was coming off her first final appearance at a WTA tournament two weeks ago.
Andreescu looked rejuvenated after a brief rain delay in the second set against Sevastova, coming back to break her opponent to go up 5-3 then holding serve.
Andreescu started strong with a break in the third set, but the 28-year-old Sevastova recovered with three breaks of her own for the match.
Andreescu had 49 unforced errors to Sevastova’s 33 throughout the match, which lasted two hours 14 minutes.
Sevastova, the 13th seed at the tournament, converted on 5-of-15 break points. Andreescu was 3-for-11 on break points won.
Later Thursday, Milos Raonic of Thornhill, Ont., played Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka, Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., faced Japan’s Taro Daniel and Eugenie Bouchard of Westmount, Que., challenged American superstar and 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams.
Andreescu went through three qualifying rounds to earn a spot in the main draw of the Australian Open a week after reaching the final at the ASB Classic in New Zealand, where she upset former World No. 1s Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams before losing to No. 14 Julia Goerges in the championship match in Auckland.
The stellar run saw Andreescu rise 45 spots in the WTA standings to sit at a career-high No. 107 entering the Australian Open. She is projected to move up to No. 88 when the new WTA rankings are released.
Andreescu won her first career main-draw match at a Grand Slam tournament on Tuesday, edging 16-year-old Whitney Osuigwe of the United States in three sets.