The Canadian Bianca Andreescu, winner of the US Open in 2019, announced to skip the Australian Open – January 17 to 30 -, saying she needed time to recover physically and mentally after two difficult years marked by the COVID-19.
“I will not start my season in Australia next year, but I will take extra time to think, train and be ready” for the rest, she wrote on Twitter, referring to “the last two very difficult years for various reasons “.
“This year in particular, I spent several weeks in quarantine, which affected me a lot. In addition, my grandmother spent several weeks in intensive care for an infection due to COVID-19 ”, explained the player who came down to the 46e global place, which also contracted the virus in April.
“A lot of times I didn’t feel like myself, especially when I was training or playing games. I felt like I was carrying the world on my shoulders. I couldn’t detach myself from everything that was going on off the pitch, I felt the collective sadness and turmoil around me, and it weighed on me, ”Andreescu continued, evoking a mental anxiety that had also struck d other sportsmen, like the Japanese Naomi Osaka, for different reasons.
“I want to give myself extra time to get back on my feet, recover and grow from it (as cliché as it sounds) and continue to inspire myself by volunteering and working on myself because I know that by doing this, I will come back stronger than ever, ”concluded the 21-year-old Canadian.
I felt like I was carrying the world on my shoulders
After dropping out of the 2020 season due to a knee injury, the former 4e world had returned to the courts in February, precisely at the Australian Open. Less than two months later, she reached the final of the WTA 1000 in Miami, but failed to defend her chances against world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty, due to a foot injury.
The rest of the season was difficult as his best result was a quarter-final in Strasbourg at the end of May. She was then eliminated in the first rounds of Roland Garros and Wimbledon, before stopping in 8e of finals at the US Open.