The return to Bianca Andreescu to competitive tennis has been pushed back once again as she focuses on the first Grand Slam of 2021.
The former US Open champ had decided to pull out of the warm-up event prior to the first grand slam of the year the Australian Open. The world No.8 was set to be the top seed at the Grampians Open in Melbourne which starts later this week.
“Following the last two weeks in quarantine, it feels so good to finally be back on the court,” said Andreescu.
“After discussing it with my team, we have decided to focus this week on training for the Australian Open and miss the Grampians“.
“Many thanks to Tennis Australia and the WTA for their hard work in providing us all of these choices. See you all at the Australian Open!”
The Canadian hasn’t played a tournament since she withdrew from the 2019 WTA Finals due to a knee and foot injury. She is coming off a 14 day hard quarantine due to the fact she was exposed to a positive case on her flight to Australia. Furthermore, her coach Sylvain Brunneau tested positive the day they landed.
Andreescu was one of 72 players that were affected by the hard quarantine measures as the players had come to an agreement with Tennis Australia and the Victoria goverment to have access to five hours a day of training in a modified quarantine.
The Grampians Trophy even delayed the start of their tournament by a couple days and the draw was mostly players who had spent 14 days in their rooms during the quarantine period.
With Andreescu withdrawal world No.12 Belinda Bencic is the highest remaining player in the draw in a field that includes Victoria Azarenka and Sloane Stephens.
In other Canadian news, Vasek Pospisil who was also affected by the 14-day hard quarantine pulled out of his opening match at the Great Ocean Road Open due to pain in his lower back. He was scheduled to face Thiago Monteiro of Brazil in the first round.
