Never in her young career had 19-year-old Bianca Andreescu lost to a Top 10 player (read: never in 2019, as all her previous eight clashes with Top 10 stars happened this season), until today’s China Open quarterfinals, when former world No.1 Naomi Osaka squeezed past her 5-7 6-3 6-4 and ended her 17-match winning streak that includes the Rogers Cup and US Open.
The world No.6 Andreescu, the highest-ranked teenager on tour who was ranked No.231 this time last year, opened the match with a 5-1 lead, but when errors crept in, the fourth-seeded Osaka leveled to 5-5.