Bianca Andreescu slips out of Wimbledon, but Félix Auger-Aliassime sweeps into the second round
Bianca #Bianca
One was flashy. The other was gone in a flash.
Such was the tale of the two boldest-face Canadians at Wimbledon in Wednesday competition: Félix Auger-Aliassime and Bianca Andreescu.
For Auger-Aliassime, the 20-year-old from Montreal, it was a straight-set dispatch of Brazil’s Tiago Monteiro that scarcely required breaking a sweat.
For Andreescu, the 21-year-old from Mississauga, it was the second-straight dispatch in a fortnight by Germany’s Alize Cornet. Scarcely a wave hello before waving goodbye to SW19.
Auger-Aliassime, the 16th seed on the men’s side, unspooled an impressive performance on Court 2, with a pair of ace exclamation points — his seventh and eighth of the encounter — to finish off a tidy, two-hour-and-seven-minute opening round match, among the many rain-deferred contests on a jammed schedule.
“Yeah, I can be really happy,” the long and lean Canadian said after setting aside Monteiro 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. “It’s always tricky, the first rounds … To step out on the court, you’ve got a bit of nerves but I was able to control that really well, step up my game, play aggressively with dominance. I served great.”
There was scant outward evidence of nerves. Auger-Aliassime committed a mere 20 unforced errors, half the Brazilian’s tally, while converting four of 13 break chances. He never faced a break and didn’t have a single double fault while providing a master class in serving — an 87 per cent win percentage on first serves that maxed out at 128 miles per hour.
Day Three at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, whilst free of rain, nevertheless remained a slip ’n’ skid adventure for competitors. “I would say muddy and humid,” Auger-Aliassime said. “The back of the court on one side, the back right was literally mud. So that can be tricky for sure. You’re careful with your movement, try to be stable and always on my toes.”
Grass is a surface the young man likes and on which he’s at his win-percentage best — 15-5 career. He is clearly still floating along on the high of beating childhood idol Roger Federer in Halle a fortnight ago. Well, who wouldn’t be chuffed taking out the Federer Express, particularly at an event the tennis icon has practically owned? But Auger-Aliassime’s game has noticeably clicked since switching to grass following a challenging clay court swing that included a first-round loss at the French Open.
“I had to bounce back and then just refocus on my fundamentals and essentials in my game. Which are my serve, my forehand and just playing instinctively and free, I would say. Just going for my shots, being creative.”
He has been co-coached, since May, by Toni Nadal, the uncle and former coach guru to Rafael Nadal.
Auger-Aliassime, who this week was named to Canada’s Olympic team, was in complete command of the affair, athletically lithe and shot-slick, his outmatched opponent unable to find, much less exploit any holes or chinks. The footwork was excellent, the reflexes sharp, and if there was a teensy sag late in the third set, probably boredom can be blamed. Monteiro, ranked 81st in the world, is not in the same league, a common imbalance in the going of Grand Slam draws. The ranking gap is even wider for Thursday’s second round, where Auger-Aliassime will face No. 98 Mikael Ymer, of Sweden. Ymer knocked off Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in his first match.
Wimbledon was not nearly so uplifting for Andreescu, flattened 6-2, 6-1 by Cornet. A stunning U.S. Open champion in 2019, the frequently injured and rehabbing Andreescu has won only three Grand Slam matches since raising the trophy at Flushing Meadows and one might well wonder if fragility has doomed her to one-hit wonder status. Unlike Cornet, however, Andreescu has only slight experience on grass so it’s unfair to base any career predictions on that slim resumé.
Hoping to recapture some of her breakout ’19 magic, when she started the year outside the top 150 and climbed as high as No. 4, the fifth-seeded Andreescu instead further lost a bit of lustre, rudely upset by the veteran Cornet, two weeks after the Frenchwoman, ranked 58th in the world, had ousted her in the second round of the Berlin Open.
“I felt like the beginning of the match was good,” Andreescu said. “We were having some good rallies, playing very smart on my side, serving good.” That was the positive spin. “At one point she just, I don’t know, she just switched gears and was like on another level. I obviously kind of stayed at the level I started the match, but she raised it.’’
Unforced errors by the Canadian — 34 to Cornet’s seven — drove the narrative, although Andreescu actually finished with more winners, 17 to 11. But Cornet, contesting her 14th Wimbledon, blended hard, flat forehands with deft net play and sterling defence to blunt her opponent’s skills. Andreescu was unable to shape any consistency, especially in important moments, jangling between some thrilling winners and uncharacteristically sloppy mistakes, particularly on her pressured backhand. She didn’t get even a sniff at a break point.
Andreescu slipped on the grass repeatedly and seemed especially rattled after losing her footing in the sixth game of the second set, limping gingerly to shake it off. She didn’t use that as an excuse.
“I didn’t slip just once, I slipped, like, six times during the match. The courts are pretty wet. My ankle (hurt) for a little bit, just for two, three points, but it went away. It was fine.”
The match point denouement was executed by Cornet, 31, on a freaky Hail Mary lob that somehow dropped smack in the opposite corner, surprising both players and propelling the limited crowd to its feet in a standing ovation.
Andreescu was in Wimbledon coachless, after recently splitting from Sylvain Bruneau. “At least I know now, I guess, how it is not to have a coach. A little bit.” No word yet on who she’ll hire next. “I’ll figure that out soon.”
She could take some comfort, after what really amounted to a Wimbledon cameo, in having been named to the Tokyo-bound Canadian team, her first Olympic Games. “I’m super looking forward to it.”
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It was a grim Wimbledon debut, meanwhile, for Leylah Annie Fernandez, the 18-year-old from Laval, Que., who lost 6-1, 6-2 in 55 minutes to Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open titlist who’s been on a grass surface roll.
“I was just embarrassed with the way I played,” Fernandez said. “I’m talking with my team to see what I need to do better, what I need to change, so that this doesn’t happen again.”
Compatriot Vasek Pospisil was eliminated from the men’s draw in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4, losing his second-round match to American Frances Tiafoe. Richmond Hill’s Denis Shapovalov advanced to the third round without ever having to swing his racquet, the beneficiary of a walkover when Spaniard Pablo Andujar withdrew because of a rib injury. For his sins, Shapovalov gets to contend with beloved-in-Britain, two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray on Friday.
Rosie DiManno is a Toronto-based columnist covering sports and current affairs for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @rdimanno
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