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Bianca Andreescu’s shocking withdrawal adds to shrinking US Open list

By Brandon Daniels

Bianca Andreescu of Canada plugs out the sound of the crowd while playing Serena Williams of the US during their women's singles finals match at the 2019 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center September 7, 2019 in New York. (Photo by Don Emmert / AFP) (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images)
Bianca Andreescu of Canada plugs out the sound of the crowd while playing Serena Williams of the US during their women's singles finals match at the 2019 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center September 7, 2019 in New York. (Photo by Don Emmert / AFP) (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP via Getty Images) /
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Bianca Andreescu, the defending US Open champion, has withdrawn from the event in a shocking decision. She joins defending men’s champion, Rafael Nadal, to sit out.

Bianca Andreescu announced earlier today that she will not be competing in the US Open; it was a shocking decision by the defending champion. She was expected to enter the tournament given that she’s been in the continental United States for the entirety of the COVID-19 shutdown. However, she expressed via Instagram that the virus restrictions over the last five months had vastly limited her preparation time.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CD1yHMMAth9/

Andreescu hasn’t played a match since retiring after the first set of her 2019 WTA Finals group stage match against Karolina Pliskova due to a knee injury. She previously eyed a return at this year’s Miami Open but the March event was canceled due to COVID-19. It was projected that the current World #6 would return to competition in Flushing Meadows to defend her title, given that she had previously eyed a March return.

She isn’t 100% and is, therefore, holding off on trying to win a second straight title. This follows the recent news that Rafael Nadal, the defending men’s singles champion, also withdrew due to COVID-19 concerns. He, unlike Andreescu, is projected to play Roland Garros and in Rome next month.

The pair’s withdrawal marks the first time that both singles champions will not defend their titles at the US Open since 2003, where 2002 winners Pete Sampras and Serena Williams retired and pulled out due to injury, respectively.

Andreescu joins the growing field of women holding out of this year’s event. Most notably is 4 of the top ten (including Andreescu and World #1, Ashleigh Barty. Elina Svitolina and Kiki Bertens are the other two players out that are ranked inside the top ten.

On the men’s side, only three of the top ten players are opting out of this year’s tournament but two of those players are Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Other notables are former champion Stan Wawrinka and World #11, Fabio Fognini.

This puts the now-struggling Simona Halep into the #1 unless Karolina Pliskova can put together a win at the Western & Southern Open and Halep struggles as she has been in Prague. 6-time champion Serena Williams and 2018 champion Naomi Osaka are set to enter the tournament as the 5th and 6th seeds.

Next. Another former champion withdraws from cursed US Open. dark

The Western & Southern Open begins August 20th, where it will host the first post-restart ATP tournament and the 4th for the WTA (Palermo, Top Seed, Prague). The tournament will be held in Flushing Meadows, New York in order to create an effective player bubble.

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