Bianca Andreescu withdraws from Grampians, focusing on Australian Open

Jackie Spiegel

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Bianca Andreescu withdraws from Grampians, focusing on Australian Open image

It has been over a year since Bianca Andreescu played a competitive match. Tennis fans will have to wait a little longer. The Canadian withdrew Monday from this week's Australian Open tune-up, the Grampians Trophy.

"Following the last two weeks in quarantine, it feels so good to finally be back on the court," Andreescu said in a statement. "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!"

Andreescu arrived in Melbourne on Jan. 16 and was placed in a mandatory two-week quarantine after a person on her flight from the Middle East tested positive for the coronavirus. The person who tested positive was, in fact, her coach, Sylvain Bruneau.

"I have followed all of the safety protocols and procedures, including testing negative within 72 hours before the flight departure and felt perfectly fine when I boarded the plane," Bruneau said in a statement that day (via Tennis Canada). Bruneau added that he had no idea how he contracted the virus while in Abu Dhabi. Andreescu had been training in the Middle East since at least Dec. 22, per her Instagram.

"I am extremely saddened and sorry for the consequences now on everyone's shoulders sharing my flight," Bruneau's statement concluded. "The rest of my team is negative and I sincerely hope that any further disruption is kept to a minimum."

Players originally were supposed to be allowed to train for five hours per day in Australia, but Andreescu and the other passengers — including 22 other players — were forced into a strict quarantine upon arrival.

"All passengers from the flight are already in quarantine hotels and the positive case, who is not a player and had tested negative before the flight, has been transferred to a health hotel," a statement from the tournament read. "The 23 players on the flight will not be able to leave their hotel room for 14 days and until they are medically cleared, they will not be eligible to practice."

Two additional positive cases were confirmed after a flight to Melbourne from Los Angeles, resulting in another 24 players and their teams being forced into isolation in their hotel rooms.

Considering she hasn't played in over a year, getting some competitive rounds under her belt wouldn't have been a bad thing for the 20-year-old. Andreescu was given the No. 1 seed at the Grampians Trophy and had a first-round bye. She would have faced the winner of the match between Sloane Stephens and fellow Canadian Leylah Annie Fernandez. Had she played, it would have been her first time on the court in a tournament since October 2019 at the WTA Finals. 

Andreescu suffered a knee injury against Karolina Pliskova at the event in Shenzhen, China. She was slated to get back on the court last March but then pulled out of Indian Wells just prior to the tournament being canceled because of the pandemic. In September, Bruneau revealed to CTV News Montreal that Andreescu and the team were "able to start (training) again in May and June when things were starting to open . . . then she got injured again."

The 2019 U.S. Open champion did not play in the 2020 edition and skipped the Australian and French opens as well (Roland Garros was played in September after New York was completed; the other Grand Slam event, Wimbledon, was canceled.) The Mississauga, Ont., native officially shut down her 2020 season when she announced she would not play in Paris.

Despite not playing in 15-plus months, Andreescu is still ranked No. 8 in the world. The Aussie Open is slated to begin Monday, Feb. 8, in Melbourne (Sunday, Feb. 7, in Canada).

Jackie Spiegel