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Bianca Andreescu has wasted no time in placing the frustration of the Australian Open behind her as she is into her first semifinal of 2023 after defeating Marta Kostyuk on Friday on the Thailand Open.
What seemed to be a straight-forward victory for the highest seeded-Canadian changed into a slugfest as Kostyuk refused to go away after a powerful begin from the Canadian. However Andreescu managed to wrestle management of the match again late within the second set to flee with a 6-0, 7-6(3) win.
She is thru to her first semifinal since June of 2022, when she reached the title match in Dangerous Homburg on grass. By reaching the ultimate 4, Andreescu is anticipated to leap again into the Prime 40 within the WTA rankings and can leapfrog Leylah Annie Fernandez to change into the highest-ranked Canadian singles participant on the WTA Tour.
“I’m hoping to win the match,” stated Andreescu in her post-match interview. “I actually consider in myself.”
The Canadian was the stronger of the 2, hitting 19 winners to her opponent’s 15 and committing 20 unforced errors, seven fewer than Kostyuk. She additionally utilized fixed stress on the Ukrainian’s serve, creating 11 break factors within the match and changing 5, whereas dealing with simply three on her personal serve.
Coming into the match having not dropped a set in her first two matches, Andreescu regarded primed to cruise into the ultimate 4 by breaking serve immediately and profitable the primary eight video games of the match. She discovered herself forward 6-0, 5-1 in underneath an hour.
That’s when the wheels began to fall off. Andreescu served for the match for the primary time at 5-2 however was damaged. Within the following sport, the Canadian went up love-40 on the Kostyuk serve however didn’t convert any of the three match factors.
When she tried to serve out the match once more at 5-4, Andreescu was damaged to like to degree the set, having misplaced 9 consecutive factors since holding triple match level.
Regardless of her lead evaporating, the highest seed by no means confirmed any outward indicators of frustration.
Within the tiebreak, Andreescu overcame an early 0-2 deficit earlier than grabbing the lead for good. The pair had been nonetheless on serve when Kostyuk was serving at 4-3, however an enormous forehand from the Canadian gave her what proved to be the decisive minibreak. Consecutive pictures into the online from the Ukrainian despatched Andreescu into the semifinals with out the necessity for a 3rd set.
Andreescu will meet one other Ukrainian, Lesia Tsurenko, for a spot in Sunday’s last. It is going to be a primary assembly between the Canadian and the world No. 136.
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