Homebody Andreescu advances in California

Bianca Andreescu cooled down the hot-streak of Ludmila Samsonova with a 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-2 first-round win WTA San Diego event.

The former US Open winner whose motivation has been hit or miss since lifting her Grand Slam title in 2019, will be staying in North America for the final few weeks of the season,preferring not to bother with travelling to Europe.

With her 57th ranking, Andrescu will have it all to make up in 2023. Her best showing at a major since her title victory was the Open fourth round last season. 

Samsonova, ranked 23rd, had won three of her last four tournaments and took only her second defeat in 20 matches.

Andreescu broke five times from 15 chances in the victory which took more than two and a half hours.

“It was very tight and it could have gone either way,” the winner said. “Towards the end I felt I was putting (on) a little bit more pressure than and I was a little bit more consistent.”

Andreescu is competing in only her 11th event of the season after only starting in April at Stuttgart after pausing for mental health and ducking the pressure of the Tour.

“I try not to have any expectations going into this season but it’s definitely better than I thought,” the Canadian said.

“After the US Open I took a few days, maybe a week in Costa Rica, my happy place,” Andreescu told the WTA. “I didn’t play any tournaments, I’ve just been training.”

“I just wanted to have a longer pre-season in a way, instead of just playing tournaments. I wanted to get some good training in because this summer was a little bit all over the place, with my back and some other things.

“I didn’t want to go all the way to Europe and then come back here because the goal is to play Guadalajara and I didn’t want to do too much traveling.”