Canada’s Bianca Andreescu will delay her start to the 2022 tennis season and skip the upcoming tournaments in Australia, including the Australian Open.
In a lengthy message posted on social media, the 2019 US Open champion explained that the past two years were exceptionally difficult for her and she felt like she was carrying the world on her shoulders.
Multiple weeks in isolation due to COVID-19 protocols caused her great physical and mental suffering. On top of that, her grandmother ended up in the intensive care unit due to a coronavirus infection.
“A lot of days I did not feel like myself, especially while I was training and/or playing matches,” the 21-year-old Andreescu explained. “I could not detach myself from everything that was going on off the court.”
The 46th-ranked Andreescu now wants to give herself “extra time to reset, recover and grow from this (as cliché as that sounds).” The former world No.4 will therefore not travel to Australia at the start of the new year, as she will take some “additional time to reflect, train and be ready for the upcoming 2022 tennis season.”
After sitting out the entire 2020 season due to injury, Andreescu played her first match in over a year in the first round of the 2021 Australian Open in February. During the 2021 season, the Canadian played 13 tournaments, her best showing being the Miami Open final from which she retired injured. (photo: Jimmie48)
