Sylvain Bruneau says Bianca Andreescu will be in “new territory” when she returns to competitive tennis after a 15-month hiatus.
After some false starts during the past year, Canada’s Andreescu will play Mihaela Buzarnescu of Romania on Tuesday in the first round of the Australian Open in Melbourne.
“This hasn’t unfolded the way we planned because we wanted two more weeks of preparation here and play in a lead-up tournament, which we weren’t able to do,” Bruneau said on a video-conference call from Melbourne. “We had a real good period leading up to our travel to Australia and then we’ve had nine or 10 days since she got out of quarantine she’s been able to practise daily and play a number of practice matches.
Andreescu and 46 other players had to isolate for 14 days when Bruneau, who has been her coach at the National Training Centre in Montreal since 2018, tested positive for COVID-19 after they flew on a charter flight from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne in mid-January.
Andreescu tore her meniscus while playing in the WTA Tour finals in October 2019. A planned comeback early last year was scuttled because of the pandemic and a comeback later in the year was called off because of a leg injury. She trained in her hometown of Mississauga and in Spain before setting up camp in Dubai in December.
The WTA opened its season in Abu Dhabi, but Andreescu decided not to play.
“We wanted to make sure that whenever she was going back to compete, she was not going to be almost ready, or 90 per cent ready, but 100 per cent ready,” Bruneau said. “That was the plan from the beginning. It was very tempting (because) it would have been good to play some matches before a big tournament like the Australian Open to break the ice, feel the pressure and all that. It was a bummer because we were right there, but we didn’t want to risk it.”
This isn’t the first time Andreescu has come back from an injury. She missed 10 weeks with a shoulder injury in 2019 before returning to beat Serena Williams to win the Canadian Open. A month later, she beat Williams again in the final of the U.S. Open to become the first Canadian to win a Grand Slam singles title.
Bruneau said the eighth-seeded Andreescu won’t have an easy match against Buzarnescu.
“They played two years ago in Acapulco (Andreescu won 6-2, 7-5), and she’s a very tricky player, a lefty,” Bruneau noted. “She lost in the qualifying and she’s here as a lucky loser, but she has been a Top 20 player.”
Andreescu is one of three Canadian women in the main draw. Leylah Annie Fernandez, the 18-year-old from Laval, has a tough match against 18th-seeded Elise Mertens of Belgium Tuesday. Rebecca Marino, who won three matches in Doha to qualify for her first Grand Slam since the 2013 Australian Open, plays Aussie Kimberly Birrell.
In the men’s warm-up for the Open, Montrealer Félix Auger-Aliassime was upset by Britain’s Daniel Evans 6-2, 6-3 in the final of an ATP 250 event Sunday. Auger-Aliassime is 0-for-7 in ATP Tour finals.