Later is better for Bianca Andreescu

     "I have come to the difficult decision...to skip...the remainder of the season...to focus on my health and training..." Bianca Andreescu had put on her social media feed. This year was all too much for the young Canadian who's zest for the court had many interruptions to handle.

     She had maintained her no.7 ranking, but found it unbearable to rehab and train for upcoming back-to-back tournaments. It was her competition with everything that was beyond her control. She had sustained a knee injury at last October's WTA Finals in Singapore. Before that, in August she'd win the 2019 U.S. Open, but she wasn't able to defend her title this year. This season was pretty much a mixture of catastrophes and coincidences. The first grand slam, the Australian Open was marred by bushfires and players wondering if they should start or could finish the tournament. Andreescu had to bail out since nursing a tender knee.

     The coronavirus hit in March, leaving tournament directors of the Indian Wells and Miami Open baffled on if they should have the event go on. Indian Wells was Bianca Andreescu's first WTA title won last year and she was saddened to not be ready to defend her title because of injury. "It's been a long road to recovery...I was looking forward to getting back on court...unfortunately I'm still not 100%," she'd said. The tour shutting down was horrendous, but for Andreescu trying to heal and be in great shape was a no-brainer. She would rests with the hopes of returning this season. But it didn't happen.

The Canadian tried to be ready to defend her US Open title

The world health crisis still was active enough but players were starting to decline traveling to New York as the numbers of infections despite lowered drastically still were present. Andreescu wasn't at her highest performance level and acknowledged that on her social media to bow out of the U.S. Open, where Naomi Osaka had won her 2nd title. The Canadian had apologized: "...I have made the difficult decision not to return to New York this year...I realize that the unforeseen challenges including the COVID pandemic have compromised my ability to prepare..."

     It was along the way of rehabbing from her knee injury that she suffered a foot ailment and decided to close down her participation of this year's 2020 tour. Sylvain Bruneau, Andreescu's coach grew apprehensive of the entire situation and said that "...the French Open will be tight...we want her to be perfectly healthy. We want to take no risks...we want to make sure that when she starts a tournament... she's able to go from start to finish." This was an impossibility along with the COVID-19 health crisis. Bianca Andreescu has shut down her tour, but next year should be a more promising one with her health as well as the coronavirus pandemic.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/32WEgwH