Andreescu makes early exit from Wimbledon, Shapovalov advances to third round

LONDON — Bianca Andreescu made an early exit from Wimbledon, while Denis Shapovalov is heading to the third round at the grass-court Grand Slam for the first time in his career.

Andreescu, the women’s fifth seed from Mississauga, Ont., was defeated 6-2, 6-1 Wednesday in her first round match against France’s Alizé Cornet.

The Canadian struggled with her service game, winning 57 per cent of first-serve points and just 24 per cent of second-serve points.

Andreescu also made 34 unforced errors to Cornet’s seven.

It was Cornet’s second win over Andreescu this month. She also beat the Canadian 7-6 (2), 7-5 in the second round of a WTA 500 event in Berlin.

“I obviously kind of stayed at the level I started the match, but she raised it,” Andreescu said. “I don’t know. I felt like I obviously could have raised my level a bit more, but during the match I felt like I couldn’t.

“I tried to stay positive the whole match. But honestly, she played really well. She was taking control from the start. She served better today than in our last match too.”

Rain in London has led to slippery playing surfaces at Wimbledon.

“Well, I don’t think it affected my game, but, I mean, those points I think I lost — I maybe won one point out of the six or how many times I slipped,” Andreescu said of the conditions.

“The courts are super slippery. I spoke to a couple other players, and they said it’s not that normal, but this is something we can’t really control.”

Shapovalov, the men’s 10th seed from Richmond Hill, Ont., advanced to the third round via walkover when his opponent, Spain’s Pablo Andujar, withdrew. Next up for Shapovalov is wild-card Andy Murray of Britain. The two-time Wimbledon champion advanced with a 6-3, 4-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over German qualifier Oscar Otte.

Also Wednesday, 16th-seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal advanced to the second round with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 win over Brazil’s Thiago Monteiro.

Auger-Aliassime did not face break point had 13 chances to break Monteiro, converting four.”

“I did save some break points, so that’s always good when you’re in this situation,” Auger-Aliassime said. “I was giving myself a lot of chances on my returns. Now I can be happy with my performance, and I’m going to try to repeat that tomorrow.”

Auger-Aliassime will face Sweden’s Mikael Ymer in the second round.

Vasek Pospisil of Vancouver fell 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to Frances Tiafoe of the United States in a second-round men’s match.

Leylah Annie Fernandez of Laval, Que., lost her first-round women’s match 6-1, 6-2 to Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 30, 2021.

The Canadian Press