Canadian tennis star Bianca Andreescu has said that she didn’t start well in her round-of-16 clash against two-time Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza, but stepped up later to come out the winner.
The current World 9 dropped the opening set but stormed back to win the next two and seal her passage to the quarter-finals.
Bianca Andreescu admits to poor start against a rampant Garbine Muguruza at Miami Open
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The Spaniard, who went into the clash in a rich vein of form but trailing 0-1 in head-to-head battles with the Canadian, looked to be in the mood to settle scores.
Andreescu conceded as much, saying Muguruza hit the ground running and bossed the early stage while she was slow to move through the gears.
“I knew she was going to come out really, really strong, and that’s what she did,” the World Number 9 said.
She added that while she was inconsistent in her shot-making and more error-prone in the opening set, Muguruza was playing “really, really well”. However, the Canadian said that after dropping the first set, she regathered her thoughts and came out with a changed game plan, which worked wonders.
Bianca Andreescu never stopped believing
Andreescu added that she never stopped believing in herself and her ability to fight back, even when she was down and things were looking dire.
“I had to re-adapt, which I did in the second set. I regrouped. I kept fighting. I changed my game plan a little bit as well. And it worked,” she said.
Trailing by a set and facing breakpoint at 1-1 in the second set, the Canadian won nine of the next eleven games to engineer a remarkable turnaround.
Explaining the shift in strategy which brought her back in the contest, Andreescu said she was initially focusing too much on attacking the Spaniard’s forehand but recalibrated her approach.
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She added that she made a mid-match assessment on what was working for and what wasn’t and came out with an altered plan.
“I just told myself, ‘Okay, he backhand was still really good but I’ll pick on that a little bit more’. That made a big difference,” Andreescu said.
She will go up against another Spaniard, Sara Sorribes Tormo, for a place in the semifinals.
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Read More: “Felt Really Down”: Bianca Andreescu Reveals How She Came Out of Injury Shadow
Tormo picked up her maiden Tour title in Guadalajara a week back and won’t be easy meat for the resurgent Canadian.