Former US Open champion, Bianca Andreescu will return for the first time in 10 months tomorrow against Sara Sorribes Tormo at the French Open and she is certainly anxious. It has been a long road back for the Canadian who thought she would only be out for a month or so, but it is nearly a year since she last played.
Andreescu who won Indian Wells, the Canadian Open and the US Open back in 2019 cannot be called a flash in the pan perhaps like some other major winners of the time. Injury stunted her growth and since then, she has shown glimmers.
But those glimmers have been few and far between with Andreescu spending more time on the treatment table than having a prolonged period of form. She suffered a stress fracture at the Washington Open last year against Marta Kostyuk and unlike her horrific ankle injury in Miami, she didn't recover as quickly.
Even getting back for Roland Garros has been a struggle with the 23-year-old having to withdraw from Rabat last week with Andreescu admitting that she was cutting it too fine in her bid to return. But she learns a lot every time she gets injured and that she is simply grateful to return again. How she does is somewhat irrelevent as a result in the short term with Andreescu more just happy to be back.
“This is the most nervous I’ve been,” the 23-year-old said as per The Canadian Press. "I know it means that I care a lot. And I really hope that I can take that nervousness and play well with it — ‘leave it all on the court’ type of thing — and not hold back too much.”
“I don’t remember the last time I felt like this, but I think it’s also because I’ve never felt so much hope in my tennis. I’m so grateful that my back held up. I have an opportunity to play again, and that’s everything for me.”
"I feel like the more I get injured, the more I learn about myself and the more I find tools to help me, I guess, recover faster and get better quicker.”
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