To the Round of 16 in Miami for Andreescu

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MIAMI, Fla. – After having a day off between matches in her first three rounds, Bianca Andreescu has to go back-to-back on Monday at the Miami Open.

This is a good thing; it means she has reached the fourth round of a WTA 1000 for the first time in, as she put it, a very long time.

She faces No. 18 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia, in an evening match on the Grandstand after three consecutive early-day Stadium court slots.

Andreescu’s 6-4, 6-4 win Sunday over Sofia Kenin, another former major champion trying to find her way back to the top, was hard work. But it also, somehow, felt relatively routine. Especially when you consider that “Three-Set Bianca” did not have to make an appearance.

The Canadian hasn’t played many 1000s in the last couple of years, which might explain why she feels it’s been awhile since she has made a run in one. It has been less than a year, since Rome last spring.

There, Andrescu also defeated Emma Raducanu in the first round and made the quarterfinals, where she lost to Iga Swiatek. Rome has one round fewer for unseeded players, which Andreescu currently is – but may not be for long.

Here’s what it looked like Sunday, on a very hot day where there was a lot of self-care on the changeovers.

The last time Andreescu made a 1000 final was here in Miami, two years ago, where she suffered a foot injury and had to retire against the now-retired Ashleigh Barty.

But that’s a long way into the future. So we’ll make like a player and not look ahead in the draw.

First meeting vs Alexandrova

Andreescu has never faced Alexandrova, a 28-year-old who seems to always hover inside the top 30 without posting up major results. She can play lights-out, aggressive tennis. She can also have that plan go completely awry at times.

Untl this week, the Russian had won back-to-back matches just once since a tournament in Ostrava last October. That was at the Australian Open, where she lost to Magda Linette in the third round.

Andreescu’s ride in Miami has not been a light skate. First Raducanu, then No. 7 Maria Sakkari, and now Kenin. But drawing Alexandrova in the fourth round is not a worst-case scenario.

She spoke after the victory about the journey (I held this up so the reporters asking questions could write and publish their stories, which you can see here in the Daily Mail, and here in the Telegraph).

A lot of positives for Kenin

Meanwhile, Kenin was taking away positives from the week.

If Andreescu is partying like it’s 2019, Kenin would love to party like it’s 2020, when she won the Australian Open to start the season.

Then COVID hit, and lockdowns, and then an ankle injury. And it’s been a struggle for the American, who is still only 24, to get back to where she was.

She should be just outside the top 140 when the new rankings come out next week, which is a nice uptick from where she started the year (No. 227). She was able to hang in there, rankings wise, because of the frozen rankings period during the early part of the pandem, and has slowly risen from No. 426 last July. She’s been able to play all the biggest events on a combination of using her protected ranking of No. 4, and getting “top-20” wild cards available to former Grand Slam champions.

She has had experienced coach Michael Joyce on board, and he will be heading to Charleston with her next week as well.