Los Angeles (AFP)
The Canadian Bianca Andreescu, winner last year, gave up defending her title at the US Open (August 31-September 13), believing that the context of the Covid-19 pandemic did not allow her to sufficiently prepare , she announced Thursday on Twitter.
"After talking to my loved ones, I made the difficult decision not to return to New York this year, in order to focus on my fitness and make sure I was ready to play at my best level again," she explained.
“Winning the US Open was by far the pinnacle of my career and I will miss not coming back. However, I realize that unforeseen obstacles, notably posed by the coronavirus pandemic, have compromised my ability to adequately prepare. to be competitive at the highest level, ”she added.
Andreescu, world No. 6, won her first Grand Slam in New York last year at the expense of American Serena Williams.
She then injured her knee, in October 2019 in Shenzen, during the group stage of the Women's Masters, which brought together the eight top-ranked players at the end of the season. Since then, the Canadian has not been able to resume competition.
The 20-year-old had assured in June that she intended to play at the US Open and was among the registered for this unprecedented edition behind closed doors.
Her forfeit is in addition to those of world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty, Ukrainian Elena Svitolina (No. 5), Dutch Kiki Bertens (No. 7) or even Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, winner of the US Open in 2004, who made this choice because of the health risks associated with the coronavirus pandemic hitting the United States hard.
© 2020 AFP