BEIJING -- Bianca Andreescu had two reasons to smile on Monday.
The Canadian tennis star won her first match since triumphing at the U.S. Open on Sept. 7 and also found out she has secured a spot in the WTA Tour Finals later this month.
Andreescu, 19, overcame a rocky second set to beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 in the first round of the China Open. Her 14th win in a row came hours after the WTA said she had locked down one of eight berths in the season-ending Finals, Oct. 27 to Nov. 3 in Shenzhen, China.
The 60th-ranked Sasnovich had her chances against the world No. 6, but notched just four of 16 break points.
Andreescu, the No. 5 seed from Mississauga, Ont., won 70 per cent of her points on first serve, as compared to 56 per cent for Sasnovich.
It was Andreescu's 13th win in a row in a three-set match.
Next for Andreescu is a rematch of a U.S. Open quarterfinal against Elise Mertens of Belgium.
Meanwhile, Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski and her partner Yifan Xu of China secured a spot in the doubles portion of the WTA Finals on Monday.
Dabrowski and Xu also advanced to the quarterfinals at the China Open with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Danija Jurak of Croatia and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain.
