Bianca Andreescu, who won the women’s championship in 2019, along with fellow Canadian Carson Branstine, both secured victories on Wednesday to progress to the final stage of U.S. Open qualifying. Andreescu, hailing from Mississauga, Ont., triumphed with a 6-0, 6-3 win against Veronika Podrez from Ukraine in the second round of the women’s singles qualifying event. The 26-year-old Canadian managed to break her opponent five times out of 12 opportunities, setting up a match scheduled for Thursday against either Tamara Zidansek from Slovenia or Guiomar Maristany from Spain.
Branstine achieved a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Linda Fruhvirtova from Czechia. The 25-year-old dual citizen, born in California but representing her mother’s home country, capitalized on all five of her break-point chances and produced 22 winners compared to Fruhvirtova’s eight. Branstine is set to compete against Robin Montgomery from the United States on Thursday for one of the remaining main-draw positions.
In 2019, Andreescu made history by becoming the first Canadian to win a singles Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open, defeating the renowned Serena Williams in the final. She last participated in the tournament in 2024, where she was eliminated in the first round by Maria Sakkari. Branstine, who exited in the first round of qualifying at last year’s U.S. Open, debuted in a Grand Slam earlier in 2025 at Wimbledon after progressing through the qualifiers, defeating her friend and occasional doubles partner, Andreescu, in the process.
In other developments from the second-round qualifying matches on Wednesday, Vancouver’s experienced player Rebecca Marino was defeated 6-2, 6-4 by Elena Pridankina from Russia. On the men’s side, Alexis Galarneau from Levis, Que., suffered a 7-6(3), 6-2 loss to Dalibor Svrcina from Czechia, while Liam Draxl from Newmarket, Ont., was scheduled to face American Andrew Johnson later in the day.