Bianca Andreescu cruises to first-round win in Madrid

Bianca Andreescu, in her second match back on tour after undergoing an emergency appendectomy in February, picked up a first-round win Wednesday at the Mutua Madrid Open.

The Canadian downed the United States' McCartney Kessler 6-2, 6-4.

Andreescu, the 2019 U.S. Open champion, returned to action last week in Rouen, France, and lost her opening-round match to the Netherlands' Suzan Lamens.

Last year, Andreescu got past the quarterfinals in just one event, when she fell in the final at 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, to Russia's Liudmila Samsonova. All three of her WTA event championships came in 2019, as she has since lost three finals.

On Wednesday, Andreescu showed her top form in the match's key moments. She converted all four of her break-point opportunities, and she saved seven of the eight break points on her own serve.

The tournament's top 32 players -- headed by No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, No. 2 Iga Swiatek of Poland, No. 3 Jessica Pegula and No. 4 Coco Gauff, both of the United States -- received first-round byes.

In other first-round action, Russia's Veronika Kudermetova defeated her younger sister Polina Kudermetova 6-2, 6-2 in their first WTA Tour matchup.

Russia's Anastasia Potapova squandered two set points while losing the first-set tiebreaker but rallied for a 6-7 (7), 6-4, 6-2 victory over the United States' Ashlyn Krueger.

Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska topped Great Britain's Francesca Jones 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-3, and Switzerland's Rebeka Masarova outlasted Australia's Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3, 1-6, 7-5.

Straight-set winners were Great Britain's Emma Raducanu and Sonay Kartal, Serbia's Olga Danilovic, Germany's Eva Lys, Japan's Moyuka Uchijima, Ukraine's Yuliia Starodubtseva, Russia's Anna Blinkova, Greece's Maria Sakkari, Argentina's Maria Lourdes Carle, Switzerland's Belinda Bencic, France's Diane Parry, Australia's Maya Joint, Latvia's Anastasija Sevastova and the United States quartet of Alycia Parks, Bernarda Pera, Ann Li and Katie Volynets.

--Field Level Media