Andreescu upsets Bertens, advances to Rogers Cup quarterfinals

Canadian teen Bianca Andreescu upset fifth seed Kiki Bertens to move into the quarterfinal of the Rogers Cup in her home city of Toronto on Thursday.

The 19-year-old dispatched Bertens, a nine-time tour winner from the Netherlands and the World No. 5, 6-1, 6-7 (7), 6-4 for her fifth win over a Top 10 player this year and third over a Top 5 player.

Andreescu cruised through the first set and had match point in the second set, but Bertens fought back to win in a tiebreak.

In the third set, with Bertens serving at 4-5, Andreescu won on her fourth match point when Bertens double-faulted for the 10th time on the day. The match lasted two hours and 33 minutes.

Next up for Andreescu will be No. 3 seed Karolina Pliskova, who moved into the quarterfinal by beating Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6-2, 7-5.

Pliskova, a 27-year-old Czech, survived a three-set, two-hour match against Alison Riske on Wednesday but had an easier time with Kontaveit, closing out the match in one hour and 18 minutes.

“Well, for sure (my game is) better than it was maybe yesterday,” Pliskova told reporters. “So I guess it’s going to get better every day with what I play. And I always was, I am, improving with matches, which I have.

“I played some doubles here. I still have doubles today. So I guess that everything helped. And I was practicing quite a lot, but still matches is different. I mean, yesterday was not perfect, but it was not bad for first match on hard court. Today much better.”

This will be the first meeting between Pliskova and Andreescu.

“Andreescu, we never played, not even practice, not even anything. So I just saw her a little bit on TV,” Pliskova said. “So it would be interesting, of course challenging, to play her here in Canada.”

Kontaveit got up an early break point against Pliskova, who fought back to even the match, then broke serve at 5-3 to win the first set. In the second set, Pliskova converted her fourth break-point opportunity in the 11th game to go up 6-5, then served out the set for the win.

In other action Thursday, No. 6 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine topped Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 6-2, 6-4. American Sofia Kenin, who eliminated World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty earlier in the week, defeated Ukrainian Dayana Yastremska 6-2, 6-2 to move into the quarterfinals.