Bianca Andreescu expressed her frustration with a line call that the chair umpire refused to correct during her and Victoria Mboko’s exit from the Japan Open on Thursday, October 23. Unfortunately, the call came as the Canadians were facing match point in the third-set super-tiebreaker of their quarterfinal match against Cristina Bucsa and Shuko Aoyama.
Andreescu and Mboko began their doubles campaign in Tokyo with a hard-fought first-round win over the team of Emiliana Arango and Zeynep Sonmez. They were eventually dumped out of the WTA 250 tournament by Busca and Aoyama in the quarterfinals by a scoreline of 4-6, 7-6(3), [8-10] in rather controversial fashion.
Bianca Andreescu Incensed At Chair Umpire After Close Call Costs Her And Victoria Mboko
At 8-9 down in a winner-takes-all third-set shootout, Victoria Mboko’s forehand return of Cristina Busca’s second serve was called out by the line judge. Bianca Andreescu subsequently contended the line call to the chair umpire to no avail, which elicited an angry reaction from the former US Open champion. While the 25-year-old was courteous enough to shake her opponents’ hands at the net, she snubbed the umpire and walked off to her seat.
A little drama on match point 😠Andreescu was not happy with the line call.. when I slow it down it looks correct to me but in full speed man that was close pic.twitter.com/2kyhLoMdMn
— Owen (@kostekcanu) October 23, 2025
A slow-motion replay of the point, posted on X by a fan, showed that Mboko’s shot missed the tramlines by just a whisker. The reigning National Bank Open champion was competing in only her fourth doubles event on the WTA Tour in Tokyo this week. Her partner, meanwhile, has proven her mettle in doubles by taking home the Catalonia Open with Aldila Sutjiadi earlier in May.
In singles, Bianca Andreescu has endured a tough 2025 season that has been riddled with injury concerns and early exits from tournaments. She lost 3-6, 3-6 to her doubles partner Victoria Mboko in the first round of the Japan Open on Tuesday, October 21, marking her 13th loss since her comeback to the pro circuit in April.
Andreescu Saw Her Campaign End at 2025 National Bank Open Due to Ankle Injury
Bianca Andreescu showed promising signs at this year’s WTA 1000 tournament in Montreal as she looked on course for a straight-set first-round victory against Barbora Krejcikova. However, the Canadian worried fans towards the end of the second set as she rolled her ankle badly on match point.
Nursing her hurt left ankle, Andreescu immediately broke into tears and cursed her bad luck while the umpire and Krejcikova checked on her. Although the 25-year-old was able to eventually complete a 6-3, 6-4 win, she withdrew from her next match due to torn ligaments. The injury kept her out of action for more than a month before she made her much-awaited return at the China Open in late September.
Currently ranked at a lowly 172nd in the WTA singles rankings, Bianca Andreescu’s career was considerably affected by injuries. During her Round-of-16 match at the 2023 Miami Open against Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 2019 US Open titlist had to be carried off in a wheelchair after picking up a freak left leg injury.
A back injury of hers then flared up in the initial few months of 2024, leading to nearly six months of inactivity on the WTA Tour. And while the former World No. 4 hasn’t missed many tournaments due to injury this year, an appendix surgery did keep her out of action in the first three months of the season.
