Former No.4 Bianca Andreescu posted her first victory since 2023 Wimbledon on Monday after defeating Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo 7-5, 6-1 in the first round at Roland Garros. The match was Andreescu's first in nearly 10 months after being sidelined by a stress fracture in her back.
Here's what we gleaned from Andreescu's rollercoaster win.
What was the key to her win?
Andreescu had never played Sorribes Tormo before, but she got the scouting report pretty quickly during a pre-tournament practice session with Yulia Putintseva. She was told to buckle in and prepare for what could be a physical, grinding, gritty, frustrating 3-hour match.
If Andreescu had not slammed the door on the Spaniard late in the topsy-turvy first set, things could have gotten messy. But the 2019 US Open champion, who has never progressed past the third round in Paris, kept her wits about her throughout the 94-minute win. After letting a 4-2 lead slip, she stayed with it to break Sorribes Tormo a total of four times in the set before serving it out.
How well did Andreescu play?
There was always going to be some level of rust for Andreescu. She'll lament some of her finishing in the short court, particularly in the first set, but Andreescu's problem-solving remains top-notch. Even though she let her lead slip in the first set, she never let her frustrations overwhelm her.
"I know there were some points in the match where I was a little bit off," Andreescu said. "She plays unconventionally. She likes to loop it, but it's effective."
Once she pocketed the 62-minute opening frame, Andreescu managed the second set perfectly. She shifted her tactics to force Sorribes Tormo to play through the points. Andreescu used her deep highballs effectively to set up her inside-out forehand, a combination that harkened back to her rousing run to the title at 2019 Indian Wells.
"I am putting in the work,' Andreescu said. "[After] frickin' four months, I would hope that I'd see some improvement on the court. I'm happy. I don't want to focus on anything negative."
Most importantly, by the end of the 90-minute match, Andreescu's competitive attitude snapped back as if she hadn't been away. The full-body exhortations sounded more like desperate pleas in the first set. By the time she was crafting points on her terms with guile and court craft in the second set, the "Come ons" became battle cries.
The sight and sound of Andreescu carving her way to a win felt all too familiar, if not somewhat nostalgic.
What's next?
Andreescu will get two days of rest before facing No.23 seed Anna Kalinskaya in the second round on Thursday. Kalinskaya, the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships runner-up, earned the first Roland Garros main-draw win of her career on Tuesday by defeating Clara Burel 7-6(3), 7-5.
"I feel that today really showed all the work that I've been putting in practice," Andreescu said. I feel it was a great first round. I feel that I have some rhythm going into the second round."
