Bianca Andreescu among Canadian casualties in French Open qualifying
Bianca Andreescu's comeback hit a snag Wednesday when she was bounced from the second round of the French Open qualifying tournament.
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The 17th seed from Mississauga, Ont., had match point against Japan's Nao Hibino up 5-3 in the second set. But she failed to convert, and Hibino came back for a 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 victory on the clay courts of Roland Garros that took two hours 31 minutes to complete.
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Andreescu was one of three Canadians eliminated from qualifying Wednesday at the second Grand Slam of the tennis season.
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Germany's Tamara Korpatsch cruised to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over 24th seed Marina Stakusic of Mississauga, and 10th seed Rebeka Masarova of Switzerland was a comfortable 6-0, 6-3 winner over Carson Branstine, a Californian who represents Canada internationally.
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The 24-year-old Andreescu, a former world No. 4 and the 2019 U.S. Open champion, is back on the court after a nearly six-month layoff after she underwent emergency appendix surgery in February. She has had some success this year on clay — which she has said is not her strongest surface — including a run to the fourth round of the WTA 1000 Italian Open earlier this month.
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Rising star Victoria Mboko of Toronto, the last Canadian alive in qualifying, plays a second-round match Thursday against Kathinka von Deichmann of Liechtenstein.
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