Bianca Andreescu was pushed into a fresh injury nightmare after rolling her ankle in the first round of Montreal two months ago. The former world No. 4 — who had missed the first three months of this season — was not only forced to withdraw from the home tournament but has been sidelined ever since.
The former US Open champion has not been allowed to play a complete season in its truest sense since the pandemic due to one injury or the other. In fact, she was forced to miss out the entire 2020 season, and later went away on a nine-month hiatus from 2023 Cincinnati up until the 2024 clay swing.
It is time for the Canadian to kick off yet another injury comeback. This is going to be her second career appearance at the China Open, where she had the pleasure of performing in her breakout 2019 season and marching all the way to its quarterfinals after beating the likes of Jennifer Brady and Elise Mertens.
Anna Bondar is having one of her better weeks of the season when it comes to hard courts. The Hungarian — who is a clay-court specialist for the most part — has dismissed both of her opponents in straight sets (including Diane Parry) in completing her qualifying process at the China Open.
The former world No. 50 won’t have high hopes in Beijing, where she lost to Jaqueline Cristian in the first round last year. However, she should still be commended for managing to stay put in the top-100 rankings after her title or runner-up finishes at W100 Wiesbaden, 125K Bari and Hamburg in this season.
Head-to-head: Bianca Andreescu leads 1-0 after needing three sets to win their first-round encounter at Wimbledon in 2023. It is difficult to gauge the Canadian’s preparedness, but one can make an estimate with the backdrop of her victories over Elena Rybakina in Rome and Barbora Krejcikova in Montreal this year.
