After being denied French Open wildcard, Bianca Andreescu makes statement start to qualifiers

May 20, 2025

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Former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu kicked off her qualifying campaign at the French Open 2025 with a dominant 6-0, 6-0 win over Yao Xinxin in less than an hour. She was locked in from the very first point and dropped a total of just eight points on serve throughout the match.

Andreescu wasn’t given a wildcard and she didn’t bother using her protected ranking to secure a place in the main draw either. Nevertheless, it has all worked out well for her given her brilliant start in the qualifying rounds.

Andreescu is competing in the qualifying rounds of a Major for the first time since the Australian Open 2019. She won her maiden WTA 1000 title a couple of months later at Indian Wells, establishing herself as a top player and negating the need for an appearance in the qualifying rounds after that.

The Canadian embarked on her latest comeback at the start of the clay swing in April. After a couple of early exits, she found her footing by winning the doubles title at the Challenger event in Catalonia. She continued her good run of form at the Italian Open, beating top 20 players Elena Rybakina and Donna Vekic before losing to Zheng Qinwen in the fourth round.

Andreescu's run in Rome has pushed her closer to the top 100 of the WTA rankings. She jumped 19 spots to be ranked No. 102 in this week's rankings. She will now aim to continue her efforts to book her place in the main draw in Paris.

Bianca Andreescu to face Nao Hibino in the second round of the French Open 2025 qualifiers

Bianca Andreescu at the French Open 2025. (Photo: Getty)

Bianca Andreescu will take on former top 60 player Nao Hibino in the second round of the French Open 2025 qualifiers. The latter kicked off her campaign here with a 7-6 (4), 6-4 win over Andrea Lazaro Garcia. This will be the first career meeting between them.

Hibino has a combined 12-13 record this season across all levels, including qualifying rounds. However, she has won only three main draw matches on the WTA and ITF Tours this year. Most of her wins have also come against players ranked outside the top 150.

Considering Andreescu's current form, she will be the heavy favorite to beat Hibino. A win over the Japanese player could pit her against either Ella Seidel or Panna Udvardy in the final round of qualifying.

About the author

Rohit is a journalist at Sportskeeda who specializes in covering tennis. Having been with the company for three years, he has proven himself as a formidable force in the field. With a Master's degree in law, Rohit brings his analytical and research skills to the forefront as a journalist. He stays on top of the game by using social media platforms and never misses a match for on-court insights. He values giving credit where it's due, keeping his reporting fair and accurate.

At the outset of his career, Rohit found his niche in writing previews and SEO pieces and it's this expertise that continues to define his role at Sportskeeda. He is particularly proud of one article that garnered an impressive 750k views and surpassed his "wildest dreams." Rohit is not particularly fond of (GOAT) debates and it is one of the reasons why he left the legal world behind. He prefers to view players in "tiers," where they're all esteemed to an extent. However, if pressed to name favorites, he would choose Serena and Venus Williams. The Williams sisters' journey from humble beginnings to the pinnacle of tennis has been his greatest source of inspiration.

When he isn't busy making spot-on predictions about match outcomes, Rohit likes reading, particularly fantasy, sci-fi, and comics. As an X-Men fanatic, he's also passionate about board games and enjoys watching movies in his spare time. And don't be surprised if you catch him silently wishing to the tennis gods for the removal of ad scoring from doubles.

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