Bianca Andreescu gets off to a winning start in Madrid

After a solid outing in Stuttgart, Bianca Andreescu continued with the strong play in Madrid winning against Alison Riske 6-4 3-6 6-0.

Bianca Andreescu played her first event in a very long time in Stuttgart last week and she took finalist Sabalenka to three sets. It was a solid outing for the player who missed several months and who generally has not played much on clay. Today in Marid she continued some of that great play albeit with the predictable shakiness.

The first set was quite exciting as both players had quite a few chances to take away the set. Both had an early break but both gave it away. Both squandered several chances after that but Andreescu eventually took the lead and held it for a 6-4 first set finish. Unfortunately, that was the last good thing she did in a while in that match.

She opened up the 2nd set with an 0-5 deficit unable to hit anything in the court. Riske was rolling and it seemed like we might see a bagel however Andreescu finally started hitting some shots and pulling back a break. Riske still finished off the set with 6-3. In the end, we did see a bagel but it was served with love by the Canadian for the American in the final set.

Riske's game completely fell apart after winning the set. Andreescu got an early on and simply added on top of it. She moves on to round to where she will face Danielle Collins.