Russian number one suffers early exit

Daria Kasatkina fell at the first hurdle against Bianca Andreescu in Canada

Russian women’s tennis number one Daria Kasatkina was unable to continue her impressive recent form as she suffered a first-round exit against Bianca Andreescu at the Canadian Open on Tuesday.

Fresh from winning the Silicon Valley Classic in San Jose at the weekend, Kasatkina was edged out by her Canadian rival in Toronto on the way to a straight-sets defeat, 6-7(5-7) 4-6.

Kasatkina rose to a career-high ranking of world number nine this week and was seeded 11th in Canada, but came undone against former US Open champion Andreescu.

Andreescu, who won the Canadian hard court showpiece in 2019, earned a second win of 2022 against her Russian opponent, having beaten Kasatkina in the quarterfinals of the Bad Homburg Open back in June.

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At the Canadian Open – also known as the National Bank Open – Andreescu finished with 31 winners to Kasatkina’s 18.

The first set in particular saw little to separate the pair, with Andreescu eventually prevailing in a tiebreak in an opening stanza which took 85 minutes to complete.

Andreescu, 22, plays Alize Cornet of France in the next round. 

The main focus for Kasatkina, 25, and the rest of the players on the North American swing of the WTA tour will be the US Open which gets underway on August 29.

Kasatkina reached a maiden semifinal at her last Grand Slam appearance at the French Open, before being forced to miss Wimbledon along with her compatriots.

Kasatkina’s best run at the US Open thus far is reaching the last 16, which she achieved in 2017.

Away from the tennis court, Kasatkina has made headlines in recent weeks after announcing in a YouTube interview that she is gay.    

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