2019 US Open champ Bianca Andreescu takes time off for sake of her mental health

The Canadian said she was affected mentally and physically by "multiple weeks in isolation quarantining" and by her grandmother’s battle with COVID in hospital

Washington Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 US Open champion, will take a mental break from tennis and sit out the start of next season, including the Australian Open, saying she wants to "re-set, recover, and grow" after a challenging two years that included getting COVID-19.

The 21-year-old from Canada wrote in a posting on Twitter that she was affected mentally and physically by "multiple weeks in isolation quarantining" and that her grandmother's stay for several weeks in a hospital's intensive care unit because of the coronavirus “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," Andreescu said.

"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."