Bianca Andreescu of Canada is finally ending her long layoff. The 2019 US Open champion is returning to tennis competition at the 2022 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
The WTA 500 tournament in Stuttgart announced Andreescu as one of their three main-draw wildcards. The Canadian will make her debut at the long-standing German event that begins on April 18.
The last time Andreescu played on the WTA Tour was in October 2021, at the BNP Paribas Open. Then she was ranked No.21, while the long period of inactivity pushed her down to No.119. She dropped out of the Top 100 after the 2022 Miami Open, as she didn’t show up at the tournament where she was defending finalist points.
The 45th Porsche Tennis Grand Prix will feature nine Top 10 players, 15 players from the Top 20. Leading the prestigious group will be world No.1 Iga Swiatek, who will be making her first appearance at Stuttgart. The other Top 10 players in the Porsche Arena are Barbora Krejcikova, Paula Badosa, Maria Sakkari, last year’s runner-up Aryna Sabalenka, Anett Kontaveit, Karolina Pliskova, Danielle Collins and Ons Jabeur.
The Porsche Brand Ambassadors Angelique Kerber and Emma Raducanu will also be in the star-studded line-up. Besides the British 2021 US Open champion, USA’s Cori Gauff is another young player who will make her debut at the 2022 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
Local hero and 2017 winner Laura Siegemund, last week’s doubles champion in Miami, has also received a main-draw wildcard for the claycourt event. Moreover, three Porsche Talent Team players got the opportunity to test themselves against the world’s best tennis players — Jule Niemeier has received a maindraw wildcard, while Nastasja Schunk and Eva Lys got wildcards for qualifying.
