There were mixed fortunes for Grand Slam champions on the comeback trail on Day 1 of the China Open. Barbora Krejcikova continued her strong recent form with a 68-minute 6-2, 6-2 defeat of Anna Blinkova, but Bianca Andreescu — playing her first match in seven weeks — was held off 6-4, 7-6(4) by Hungarian qualifier Anna Bondar in a match that finished at 11 p.m. in Beijing.
Beijing: Scores | Draws | Order of play
Former US Open champion Andreescu’s injury-struck career was dealt another blow in Montreal when, just nine tournaments into her comeback from a six-month layoff, she injured her ankle on match point against Krejcikova. Though she was able to close out that match, the Canadian was forced ti withdraw from her home tournament and the remainder of the North American hard-court swing.
Now ranked No. 181, Andreescu can draw several positives from her return to action in Beijing. There was no sign of her ankle affecting her movement and as the match drew on, she showed plenty of both grit and creativity as she sought to overturn a 5-2 deficit in the second set.
Bondar, who reached the first tour-level final of her career in Hamburg in July, delivered a poised performance in the first set, unleashing with her lethal forehand whenever the ball landed in her strike zone. But the second set opened with seven breaks of serve in the first eight games; despite Bondar building a 5-2 lead, her serve had become more vulnerable and Andreescu had begun controlling the tempo of the match to a greater extent.
Andreescu came up with sliced backhand winners, big returns and several key net approaches to peg Bondar back and force a tiebreak, and came within three points of forcing a decider after a terrific lob-volley combination to go up 4-3. But No. 96-ranked Bondar kept a cool head in the last few points, drawing Andreescu backhand errors with knifing slices of her own and then coming up with consecutive winners of her own to seal victory after 1 hour and 59 minutes.
Bondar, who had never previously won a main-draw match in Beijing, will next face No. 24 seed Veronika Kudermetova.
Krejcikova cruises, Sakkari wins third-longest match of 2025
Two-time major champion Krejcikova is fresh off consecutive quarterfinal runs at the US Open and Seoul, and the Czech was in authoritative form to defeat Blinkova for the fourth time in as many meetings.
Krejcikova has turned heads recently for her dramatic comebacks — she has notched four wins from match points down since June, most recently against Emma Raducanu in Seoul. There was no need for a similar turnaround here, though there was a mini version of it in the second set. Blinkova broke Krejcikova in the second game, and held two points to go up 3-0. Cue a flurry of perfectly constructed points ending in clean winners from Krejcikova to break back — and start a six-game run that took her to victory.
The win was also Krejcikova’s first in Beijing in her third appearance at the tournament. She lost her opener to Mirra Andreeva in 2023 and to Jaqueline Cristian in 2024. She will next face No. 9 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the sixth edition of their rivalry. Alexandrova leads the head-to-head 3-2, including 2-0 on hard courts, but they have not played since the second round of Roland Garros 2021 — a match won by Krejcikova en route to her first major crown.
Former World No. 3 Maria Sakkari triumphed in a Day 1 marathon, coming from 4-2 down in the third set to defeat Ashlyn Krueger 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 7-5 in 3 hours and 29 minutes — the third-longest tour-level match of 2025 so far. Up next for the Greek No. 1 is No. 25 seed Leylah Fernandez.
“One of the longest matches I’ve ever played and I really needed that win,” said Sakkari, who owns a 20-24 tour-level record this year and whose ranking is now No. 56. “I need those kind of matches, I need those kind of wins.”
All of 2025’s three-hour WTA main draw matches so far (as of September 24)
1. Coco Gauff d. Zheng Qinwen 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-6(4), Rome SF (3:32)
2. Viktorija Golubic d. Arantxa Rus 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(10), Cluj-Napoca R1 (3:30)
3. Maria Sakkari d. Ashlyn Krueger 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 7-5, Beijing R1 (3:29)
4. Ella Seidel d. Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-7(4), 7-6(3), 7-5, Seoul R2 (3:28)
5. Lucia Bronzetti d. Zhu Lin 6-7(6), 6-2, 7-6(6), Cincinnati R1 (3:27)
6. Laura Siegemund d. Tatjana Maria 7-5, 6-7(6), 7-6(2), Montreal R1 (3:26)
7. Tatjana Maria d. Chloe Paquet 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-4, Bogota R1 (3:25)
8. Aliaksandra Sasnovich d. Varvara Gracheva 6-4, 6-7(5), 7-6[8], Wimbledon R1 (3:24)
9. Gao Xinyu d. Beatriz Haddad Maia 5-7, 6-4, 7-5, United Cup RR (3:22)
T10. Daria Kasatkina d. Peyton Stearns 7-6(7), 4-6, 7-5, Brisbane R2 (3:21)
T10. Liudmila Samsonova d. Jessica Pegula 6-7(8), 7-5, 7-6(5), Berlin R2 (3:21)
T10. Diane Parry d. Tara Wuerth 7-6(9), 3-6, 7-5, Hamburg R1 (3:21)
T13. Emma Navarro d. Peyton Stearns 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 7-5, Australian Open R1 (3:20)
T13. Wang Xinyu d. Jil Teichmann 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 6-4, Singapore QF (3:20)
T15. Laura Siegemund d. Hailey Baptiste 4-6, 7-5, 6-4, Australian Open R1 (3:16)
T15. Jaqueline Cristian d. Leylah Fernandez 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-3, Indian Wells R2 (3:16)
T15. Yuliia Starodubtseva d. Wang Yafan 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-4, Montreal R1 (3:16)
T18. Yulia Putintseva d. Diana Shnaider 7-6(3), 6-7(9), 6-4, Adelaide QF (3:14)
T18. Harriet Dart d. Jana Fett 7-5, 2-6, 7-6[7], Australian Open R1 (3:14)
20. Rebecca Sramkova d. Laura Siegemund 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-6(6), Nottingham R1 (3:13)
T21. Jule Niemeier d. Laura Siegemund 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, Stuttgart R1 (3:12)
T21. Magdalena Frech d. Sara Errani 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(5), Stuttgart R1 (3:12)
T21. Emiliana Arango d. Viktoriya Tomova 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-4, Rome R1 (3:12)
T21. Leylah Fernandez d. Elena Rybakina 6-7(2), 7-6(3), 7-6(3), Washington SF (3:12)
T25. Clara Tauson d. Caroline Dolehide 3-6, 7-5, 6-4, Washington R2 (3:10)
T25. Renata Zarazua d. Madison Keys 6-7(10), 7-6(3), 7-5, US Open R1 (3:10)
T27. Aryna Sabalenka d. Emma Raducanu 7-6(3), 4-6, 7-6(5), Cincinnati R3 (3:09)
T27. Moyuka Uchijima d. Olga Danilovic 7-6(2), 4-6, 7-6[9], US Open R1 (3:09)
29. Anastasia Zakharova d. Kimberly Birrell 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, Cleveland R1, 3:08
30. Jessica Bouzas Maneiro d. Louisa Chirico 5-7, 7-5, 6-4, Montreal R1 (3:06)
T31. Katie Volynets d. Erika Andreeva 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-2, Auckland R1 (3:05)
T31. Leolia Jeanjean d. Yuliia Starodubtseva 7-5, 1-6, 6-4, Cincinnati R1 (3:05)
33. Barbora Krejcikova d. Taylor Townsend 1-6, 7-6(13), 6-3, US Open R4 (3:04)
T34. Cristina Bucsa d. Emma Raducanu 5-7, 7-5, 7-5, Singapore R1 (3:03)
T34. Belinda Bencic d. Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(2), Madrid R3 (3:03)
T34. Jaqueline Cristian d. Camila Osorio 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4, Rabat SF (3:03)
37. Beatriz Haddad Maia d. Emma Navarro 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-2, Strasbourg QF (3:02)
38. Sorana Cirstea d. Emma Navarro 7-6(5), 3-6, 7-5, Dubai R3 (3:01)
T39. Destanee Aiava d. Greet Minnen 5-7, 7-5, 7-6[6], Australian Open R1 (3:00)
T39. Anna Bondar d. Noma Noha Akugue 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(3), Hamburg R1 (3:00)
T39. Ajla Tomljanovic d. Renata Zarazua 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(1), Monterrey R1 (3:00)
T39. Diana Shnaider d. Elise Mertens 3-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(4), Monterrey QF (3:00)