2019 US Open champ Bianca Andreescu to skip Australian Open

Canada tennis star Bianca Andreescu has announced she will not compete in the 2022 Australian Open on Monday.

Andreescu explained her decision on Twitter, saying she wants to "re-set, recover, and grow" after a "challenging" two years that included testing positive for COVID-19.

"Hi everyone. As you all know, the last two years have been very challenging for me for a variety of reasons," Andreescu wrote.

"Especially this year in particular, I spent multiple weeks in isolation quarantining, which affected me greatly - both mentally and physically. In addition, my grandmother spent several weeks in the ICU for a COVID infection, something that really hit me hard."

"A lot of days, I did not feel like myself, especially while I was training and/or playing matches. I felt like I was carrying the world on my shoulders. I could not detach myself from everything that was going on off the court; was feeling the collective sadness and turmoil around and it took its toll on me," the 21-year-old pointed.

"I want to give myself extra time to re-set, recover, and grow from this [as cliche as that sounds] and continue to inspire by doing charity work, giving back and working on myself because I know by doing this, I will come back stronger than ever. I will therefore not start my season in Australia this year, but will take some additional time to reflect, train, and be ready for the upcoming 2022 tennis season," she concluded.

Andreescu, the 2019 US Open champion, finished her 2021 season ranked No.46. After sitting out the 2020 season due to injury, Andreescu, a former World No.4, played her first match in more than a year at the Australian Open in February.

Less than two months later, she was into a WTA 1000 final at the Miami Open, where she tallied wins over Garbine Muguruza and Maria Sakkari before retiring in the final against No.1 Ashleigh Barty.

Andreescu, 21, would make one quarterfinal for the rest of the season. She announced a split with coach Sylvain Bruneau in June and brought on veteran coach Sven Groeneveld ahead of the summer hardcourt season.

The new pairing yielded a solid Round of 16 showing at the US Open. Andreescu finished her 2021 campaign with a third-round loss to Anett Kontaveit at Indian Wells.

( With inputs from ANI )