Canadian teenager Bianca Andreescu has pulled out of the ASB Classic in Auckland due to a knee issue, which had forced to retire during last October’s WTA Finals in Shenzhen.
The world number 5 player made her breakthrough on the international stage in the 2019 edition of the Auckland tournament, where she qualified for the main draw and went on to reach her first WTA singles final after starting the tournament as world number 152. During the New Zealand tournament Andreescu upset top seed Caroline Wozniacki and Venus Williams before losing the final to defending champion German Julia Goerges in three sets.
Andreescu got through the qualifying round at the Australian Open before winning her first match in a Grand Slam main draw against Whitney Osuigwe. She then lost to Anastasjia Sevastova in the second round. The Canadian teenager won her first WTA 125 k series title in Newport Beach and improved her ranking to world number 68.
Andreescu became the third wild card to reach the semifinals at the Indian Wells Premier Mandatory tournament joining Serena Williams and Kim Cljisters. She beat Elina Svitolina in the semifinal and Angelique Kerber in the final. A the Miami Open Andreescu beat Sofia Kenin taking a re-match against the young US player, who had beaten the Canadian rising star in Acapulco a few weeks earlier.
At her home tournament at the Rogers Cup in Toronto Andreescu reached her third final after beating two former top 10 players Eugenie Bouchard and Daria Kasatkina and two current top 10 players Kiki Bertens and Karolina Pliskova. She went to beat Kenin in their third head-to-head match of the season. Andreescu won her second WTA Premier title of her career after Serena Williams was forced to retire, when she was 1-3 down in the first set.
At the US Open Andreescu beat Belinda Bencic in two sets to reach her first Grand Slam final. The tennis player from Mississagua beat Serena Williams in straight sets, becoming the first Canadian player to win a Grand Slam singles title and the first woman to win the US Open title in her main draw debut. Andreescu qualified for the WTA Finals for the first time in her career. After losing to 2019 Wimbledon champion Simona Halep in three sets, Andreescu retired in her second round-robin match against Karolina Pliskova due to a knee injury.
Andreescu hopes to recover in time for the Australian Open.
“I want to let you know that I won’t be playing in Auckland this year. I am super disappointed about it but I spoke to my team and I really have to what is best for my knee right now. I have so many good memories from Auckland and I hope I can create more of those in 2021”.
In the doubles tournament Caroline Wozniacki and Serena Williams will play the doubles tournament together. US tennager duo formed by Coco Gauff and Catherine McNally have confirmed that they will play the doubles together in Auckland. Gauff and McNally clinched their first WTA doubles tournament at the Citi Open in Washington in their first WTA tournament together. They are still eligible for junior tournaments. The two teenagers reached the round of 16 at the US Open as wildcard last September. They reached the semifinal in Linz and won their second WTA doubles title in Luxembourg. Gauff became the youngest player to qualify for the singles main draw at Wimbledon and beat her idol Venus Williams in the first round. The 15-year-old player went on to win her first WTA title in Linz after beating Kiki Bertens. Gauff is the youngest player ranked in the top 100 and has a career-high of world number 68.
