Mirra Andreeva defeated Barbora Krejcikova in the first round of the WTA China Open with a straight-sets victory 6-2, 6-2.
Andreeva competed in the qualifiers for the WTA 1000 event, defeating Kimberly Birrell and Anna Kalinskaya to reach the draw where she faced tenth seed Krejcikova in the Round of 64.
Before this match, the 16-year-old led their head-to-head 1-0, having won a set against the Czech player in the second round of this year’s Wimbledon before Krejcikova retired the match while Andreeva led 6 -3, 4-0.
Andreeva dominated the match from the start, breaking Krejcikova in her first service game. The 27-year-old was up 40-30 but a double fault took it to deuce. Andreeva then hit the ball to Krejcikova where it landed on the line, giving the Russian the advantage and break point. An unforced error from the World No. 11 then gave Andreeva an early break.
As the opening set progressed, Andreeva seemed to have an answer to everything Krejcikova tried, as the latter built up several unforced errors, including one that gave Andreeva double break points. Krejcikova then hit the ball into the net which made her opponent achieve the double break.
Krejcikova tried to fight back while trailing 4-1 and managed to get her first break points of the match as she led 40-15 in Andreeva’s next service game. However, the teen tennis star was not ready to relinquish control of the match and came back to take it to a deuce, where several unforced errors from Krejcikova helped Andreeva hold her serve.
The second set was very similar to the first, with Andreeva getting another double break, although Krejcikova did not challenge a break point of her own in this match.
In the last game of the match, Andreeva served for the set and built a 30-0 lead. However, Krejcikova still tried to fight in any way possible and leveled at 30-30 after running Andreeva to the net only to hit the ball out of her reach.
However, Andreeva ran back to the net on the next point and hit the ball past Krejcikova before later hitting the ball into the net to seal the win for her opponent.
Andreeva will face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the second round of the China Open.
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