Canada’s Bianca Andreescu battles for long-awaited victory at Charleston Open

Bianca Andreescu ended her long drought on Tuesday.

The Canadian won her first WTA main draw match since last July, defeating world No. 84 Dalma Galfi of Hungary 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 in the first round of the Charleston Open, a WTA 250 clay-court event.

Andreescu, whose ranking has slipped to No. 140, has mainly competed in lower-level events this year as she attempts to improve her ranking to the highs of 2019, when she won the U.S. Open and reached world No. 4.

Andreescu lost to Galfi in three sets in February in Austin, Texas. The last time a Canadian won a main draw was last year’s National Bank Open in Montreal when Rogers injured her ankle and was unable to compete in the second round.

Andreescu, 25, has excelled at lower levels this year, posting a 19-5 record.

Her ranking at the beginning of this year was No. 228.

“I wanted to do it in 2024 (after a nine-month hiatus), but I guess we can say my ego got in the way of that,” Andreescu said of her decision to return to a lower level this year, per the WTA Tour. “I decided maybe it was time to put that aside and really get what I’ve always needed, which is competition. There’s never a guarantee you’re going to get a lot of competition – I think the level of the ITF Tour is huge. They’re competing for a lot of things.

“Thinking back to when I was on the WTA Tour, it felt more comfortable, right? On the WTA Tour you get more benefits, so mentally it’s probably a little more relaxed. But on the ITF Tour, I mean, it’s life or death. These guys are barely breaking even. I proved to myself that I could play match after match and feel good. I played 14 matches in 16 or 17 days and my body felt good.”

Andreescu said she was pleased with her effort against Kalmar.

“At the end of the day, hard work is all that matters to me,” she said in an on-court interview. “If I gave my best effort that day, and I think I did, that’s the most important thing. And then intention, that’s what I talk about every day with coaches. If I can do those two things, then winning or losing doesn’t matter to me — I have to be happy with that.”

Andreescu will next face 16th-seeded American Sofia Kenin