{"id":158083,"date":"2025-09-24T19:31:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T19:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/158083\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T19:31:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T19:31:09","slug":"former-grand-slam-champion-loses-first-match-since-returning-from-injury-at-the-china-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/158083\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Grand Slam champion loses first match since returning from injury at the China Open"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The China Open is now underway as the stars of the WTA Tour look to impress in Beijing.<\/p>\n<p>Nine Grand Slam champions made the trip to Beijing for the ninth <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/wta\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">WTA<\/a> 1000 tournament of the year.<\/p>\n<p>The likes of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/coco-gauff\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Coco Gauff<\/a>, Iga Swiatek, and Naomi Osaka all received byes into the second round and are set to begin their campaigns on Friday, September 26.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"633\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2236208961-1024x633.jpg\" alt=\"Coco Gauff training ahead of the 2025 China Open\" class=\"wp-image-132336\" \/>Photo by Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Unseeded former champions such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/barbora-krejcikova\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Barbora Krejcikova<\/a> have already played their first-round matches, with the Czech star winning her opener in straight sets.<\/p>\n<p>Not everyone made it through, however, as the 2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/us-open\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">US Open<\/a> champion lost her first match since returning from injury.<\/p>\n<p>Former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu loses in the first round of the China Open<\/p>\n<p>Canada\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/news\/bianca-andreescu-joins-exclusive-club-among-tennis-legends-in-incredible-statistic-after-first-round-win-in-montreal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bianca Andreescu last played a match at her home Canadian Open<\/a>, defeating Krejcikova in round one.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, she was unable to play her second-round match, as she withdrew from the tournament due to injury.<\/p>\n<p>Failing to recover in time, Andreescu was forced to skip the US Open as well, instead making her return to tennis in China.<\/p>\n<p>Entering the China Open with her protected ranking, Andreescu took on qualifier Anna Bondar in the first round.<\/p>\n<p>Both players struggled on serve throughout the match, which finished late at night in front of a sparse crowd on Beijing\u2019s \u2018Diamond Court\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>PlayerAcesDouble faults1st Serve %Win % on 1st ServeWin % on 2nd ServeBreak pointsBianca Andreescu1268%49%45%5\/6Anna Bondar6356%61%48%6\/8Serving stats from Bianca Andreescu vs Anna Bondar<\/p>\n<p>Despite breaking late on in the second set to force a tiebreaker, Andreescu couldn\u2019t take a set off the Hungarian, as she lost 4-6, 6-7 [4-7].<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2236679486-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Bianca Andreescu reacts during her defeat to Anna Bondar at the 2025 China Open\" class=\"wp-image-132331\" \/>Photo by Fred Lee\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Andreescu was understandably disappointed with the defeat, in stark contrast to her delighted opponent.<\/p>\n<p>Making her way through to the second round as a qualifier, Bondar took the time to share some kind words about Andreescu after the match.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s an amazing player, she had great results in the past, I know she\u2019s coming back from injury, but I\u2019m just super happy with my performance today and how I managed to stay strong in the key moments,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m super happy coming from qualifying to be in the second round. It\u2019s my second time here.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m grateful to the people who stayed and watched us. It\u2019s super late, so I really appreciate that you guys stayed to cheer for us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bondar will now rest up ahead of her second-round match against Veronika Kudermetova on Friday, but where will we see Andreescu play next?<\/p>\n<p>Bianca Andreescu will play qualifying in Wuhan<\/p>\n<p>Unlike Beijing [96], the upcoming Wuhan Open is a 56-player draw.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, Andreescu\u2019s protected ranking isn\u2019t strong enough to see her gain direct entry into the main draw.<\/p>\n<p>She will instead have to advance through qualifying, something she has struggled with so far in 2025.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"659\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2219918456-1024x659.jpg\" alt=\"Bianca Andreescu reacts during her defeat to Amanda Anisimova at the Berlin Open\" class=\"wp-image-105250\" \/>Photo by Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Andreescu failed to advance to the main draw of both the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetennisgazette.com\/tag\/french-open\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">French Open<\/a> and Wimbledon this year, suffering two devastating defeats.<\/p>\n<p>2025 French Open Q1 [WIN] vs Yao Xinxin \u2013 6-0, 6-02025 French Open Q2 [LOSS] vs Nao Hibino \u2013 6-2, 6-7, 4-62025 Wimbledon Q1 [WIN] vs Laura Pigossi \u2013 6-2, 6-12025 Wimbledon Q2 [LOSS] vs Carson Branstine \u2013 6-7, 6-4, 1-6<\/p>\n<p>Only time will tell if she can get the job done in Wuhan, but you certainly won\u2019t want to miss any of the action.<\/p>\n<p>Qualifying for the 2025 Wuhan Open is set to begin on Saturday, October 4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The China Open is now underway as the stars of the WTA Tour look to impress in Beijing.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[72113,70283,101,118,56,54,55,6546],"class_list":{"0":"post-158083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-bianca-andreescu","9":"tag-china-open","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom","15":"tag-wta"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}