By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday February 8, 2021

The biggest part of the battle for Bianca Andreescu was won when she stepped back onto the court and notched a first-round victory over Mihaela Buzarnescu on Monday in Melbourne. She showed the public her ability to dig down and deliver a clutch victory was still there, even after 15 months away from the sport, regardless of her lack of match toughness.



Today, however, against the savvy veteran Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan, Andreescu’s comeback was halted in its tracks as the 35-year-old wizard bamboozled the Canadian 6-3, 6-2 in 83 minutes.

There wasn’t much Andreescu could do against the clever Hsieh on a hot, muggy day in Melbourne Park. Never mind the fact that the Canadian had endured 14 days of hard quarantine--an excruciating thing for any player but more so for the Canadian, who had not played for so long because of health reasons.

The after effects of the hard quarantine surely played a role today, but Hsieh would have been difficult to take down even in normal conditions. Just ask some of the other Top 10 players that have fallen to Hsieh at the Slams of late, like then World No.1 Simona Halep at Wimbledon in 2019 or then World No.3 Garbine Muguruza at the Australian Open in 2018.

Simply put, the devilish Hsieh is a nightmare to face for many top players, regardless of conditions, surface or any other external factors.

Hsieh took the early lead in the match and never relented beneath the bright Melbourne sun on Wednesday, her dizzying array of bunts and baps spraying all over the fore and backcourt as Andreescu struggled to find her balance and consistently deploy groundstrokes that could take the fleet-footed Hsieh off her game.

Andreescu’s effort never lacked, but the results would not come.

Even when Andreescu rallied to get back on serve in the second set after falling behind 3-0, she could not come all the way back. A swift rebreak by Hsieh for 4-2 set the tone for a frustrating seventh game that saw Andreescu fail on two break points before eventually yielding.

Andreescu saved a pair of match points while serving at 2-5, but she couldn’t finish out the game after double-faulting on game point. Hsieh took the final three points to claim the victory and a spot in the third round of a Slam for the fourth time at the Australian Open.

She will face either Venus Williams or Sara Errani in the third round.