2019 champion Bianca Andreescu scored another key win on home soil at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers on Wednesday night, earning her first win over a player who has troubled her badly in the past.
Andreescu beat Alize Cornet 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 in 2 hours and 26 minutes to reach the last 16 of the tournament for the third time in her career. Andreescu has now won eight matches in a row at the event, which is held in Toronto, which is the closest major city to her hometown.
Corne defeated Andreescu in straight sets in their previous two meetings, which took place during last year’s grass court season, in Berlin and in the first round at Wimbledon. Third time was the charm for Andreescu as she finally got her first win over Corne.
Andreescu hadn’t won back-to-back matches on hard court in almost a year, with her last back-to-back victories on clay coming at last year’s US Open. However, the former US Open champion backed up her Top 10 win over Daria Kasatkina in the first round by firing 27 winners behind Corne.
Andreescu also had 27 unforced errors in the match. However, Cornet finished the clash with less clean numbers than the Canadian, with 21 winners against 30 unforced errors.
Zheng will face Andreescu; Teichmann upsets Kontaveit
Earlier on Wednesday, Top 5 players Ons Jabeur and Anett Kontaveit were knocked out of the tournament in their opening matches after first-round byes.
Rising Chinese 19-year-old Zheng Qinwen was leading No. 5 seed Jabeur 6-1, 2-1 when Jabeur withdrew from the second-round match due to abdominal pain. Zheng will face Andreescu in the Round of 16, which will be their first meeting.
Zheng has now strung together two consecutive tour-level hard-court match wins for the first time since January, and also claimed the first Top 10 win of his career with a win over Jabeur, after retiring.
World No.51 Zheng is in the midst of his breakout season, having started as No.143. Zheng was the only player to win a set against eventual champion Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros.
And World No.21 Jil Teichmann upset No.2 seed Kontaveit 6-4, 6-4 in 1 hour 27 minutes to reach the last 16 in Toronto. To complete the upset, Teichmann converted four of his six break points while parrying six of the eight break points he faced.
Teichmann earned the fifth Top 5 win of her career and she defeated the current world No. 2 for the second time. She previously defeated then-No.2 Naomi Osaka during her run to the final at WTA 1000 Cincinnati last year.
Teichmann, who defeated former world No. 1 Venus Williams in the first round, will face another former world No. 1, two-time National Bank Open champion Simona Halep, in the round of 16. Teichmann and Halep will meet for the first time.
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