2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu will take a mental break from tennis and not compete early next season, including the Australian Open. She said Monday on her social networks that she wants to “get back in place, recover and grow” after two “difficult” years during which she notably contracted COVID-19.
The 21-year-old Canadian wrote in a Twitter post that she had been affected mentally and physically by “several weeks of quarantine in isolation” and that her grandmother’s stay for several weeks in the intensive care unit was ‘a hospital because of the coronavirus “really affected her”.
“Several days I didn’t feel like myself, especially when I was training and / or playing games. I felt like I was carrying the world on my shoulders, Andreescu said. I couldn’t detach myself from everything that was going on off the court; I felt the sadness and the uproar around me and it weighed on me. ”
Andreescu joins other professional athletes who have cited the need to take time away from competition for mental rejuvenation, including Naomi Osaka, four-time champion and former tennis number one. Osaka took a hiatus after retiring from Roland Garros in May, then after losing at the US Open in September, and did not play the remainder of the season.
Andreescu was 19 when she capped an outstanding season by beating her idol, Serena Williams, in the U.S. Open final two years ago. Shortly thereafter, Andreescu rose to career-high fourth in the WTA rankings.