By Alberto Amalfi | Wednesday, February 5, 2020
Bianca Andreescu hasn't played a match since suffering a knee injury on October 30th. Will we see the US Open champion in this weekend's Fed Cup qualifier?
Photo credit: US Open Facebook
Bianca Andreescu was grounded by a knee injury at the WTA Finals.
Will the US Open champion launch her comeback this weekend in Canada's Fed Cup qualifier vs. host Switzerland?
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That was the main question as captains met the media in Biel, Switzerland.
Andreescu heads a Canadian squad that features former Wimbledon finalist Genie Bouchard, 17-year-old Leylah Annie Fernandez and Top 10 doubles player Gabriela Dabrowski. Andreescu is holding out hope there's "a chance" she can play.
"I think there's still a chance," Andreescu told Tom Tebbutt and Tennis Canada. "We haven't made any decisions yet but I'm hoping I can play."
Canadian captain Heidi El Tabakh declined to reveal her cards ahead of the draw.
"She's been training," El Tabakh told Fed Cup.com. "She's been improving every single day. We know that for this tie, time is against her. But she's been making a lot of improvements and we have a couple more days here.
"She loves Fed Cup. She always represents her country with honor and pride. And for her, Fed Cup is one of the most important weeks of the year."
The knee injury forced Andreescu out of the Australian Open last month.
The 19-year-old Andreescu has not played a match since hobbling off the court after dropping the opening set to Karolina Pliskova on October 30th at the WTA Finals.
After a medical time-out to tape her left knee, Andreescu lacked her typical dynamic movement and was pushing back tears consulting with coach Sylvain Bruneau later in the set.
"My knee twisted, I heard a crack, she validated me that it’s my meniscus," Andreescu said. "I can't bend my knee at all. It's cracking every time I walk and it freaking hurts."
In recent weeks, Andreescu shared a brief clip of her training on social media. In the clip, Andreescu is wearing taping around her injured left knee.
World No. 5 Belinda Bencic leads a Swiss squad that includes Timea Bacsinszky, Viktorija Golubic, Stefanie Voegele and Jil Teichmann.
Veteran Swiss captain Heinz Guenthardt says he's anticipating an Andreescu appearance.
"I have to assume Bianca Andreescu is going to walk out there and compete because why else would she be here?" Guenthardt said. "Nobody knows how well she'll compete—probably even she doesn't know that. It's a different thing to practice and to then walk out there and play a Fed Cup tie.
"It doesn't sound like a very thought-out answer, but in the case of this week particularly, we're just going to try to focus on ourselves."