Bianca Andreescu calls it a season, focusing on 2021

World no. 7 and the youngest player in the top-25, Bianca Andreescu, has decided to skip the rest of 2020 and focus on a fresh start in January 2021. It came as an expected news a couple of days after she withdrew from Roland Garros, feeling not ready to compete this season after injuries and preparing everything for a return in three or four months. Thanks to the coronavirus outbreak, Andreescu still owns her 2019 points, standing in the top-10 and having an excellent starting position to chase significant victories and titles once she returns, eager to play at her best again. The 20-year-old Mississauga native hasn't played a match in 2020, enduring a terrible knee injury at the WTA Finals in Shenzhen last November and never recovering enough to embrace competitive encounters. Ranked 208th, an 18-year-old Andreescu lost in the opening qualifying round at the US Open 2018 to Olga Danilovic.

Twelve months later, the Canadian arrived in New York as one of the title favorites, conquering Indian Wells and Toronto earlier in 2019 and overcoming a nasty shoulder injury from Miami to deliver her best tennis and write history. Competing in her first US Open main draw as world no. 15, Bianca toppled seven rivals to earn Major glory and become the first champion from Canada, defeating the six-time winner Serena Williams 6-3, 7-5 in an hour and 39 minutes. Andreescu became the first player to claim the US Open title on debut and the first since Monica Seles at Roland Garros 1990 with the Major title in only the fourth try.

Bianca Andreescu will not compete in 2020, targeting a fresh start next January.

Reaching the final as the first teenager in New York since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009, Bianca went a step further to lift the trophy, adding her name to Maria Sharapova, the last teenage Major champion at the US Open 2006. After a nasty injury from March and with the most famous trophy in her hands, Bianca planned to slow down in the rest of the year, reducing her schedule and finishing the season at her first WTA Finals in Shenzhen. After wasting a match point against Simona Halep, Andreescu suffered a terrible knee injury versus Karolina Pliskova, which has kept her away from the court ever since. Despite a couple of attempts, Bianca couldn't make a return in 2020, hoping for a better run next season and targeting the Olympic Games as one of her goals.

"I have come to the difficult decision to skip the clay-court swing this year and will be taking the remainder of the season off to focus on my health and training. As hard as it was to come to this conclusion, I have so much to look forward to in 2021, including the Olympics. I want to use this time to focus on my game, so I can come back stronger and better than ever," Bianca Andreescu said.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3kDIWxw