FILE PHOTO: Tennis – WTA Tour Finals – Shenzhen Bay Sports Center – Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China – October 30, 2019 Canada’s Bianca Andreescu waves after retiring injured from her match against Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova REUTERS/Aly Song
TORONTO (Reuters) – Reigning U.S. Open champion Bianca Andreescu will make her 2020 season debut next week as a member of the Canadian team that will face Switzerland in a Fed Cup qualifier, Tennis Canada said on Tuesday.
World number six Andreescu, who missed this year’s Australian Open due to a knee injury suffered at the WTA Finals in Shenzhen last October, will be joined in the Canada squad by Eugenie Bouchard, Gabriela Dabrowski and Leylah Annie Fernandez.
The winner of the Feb. 7-8 tie in Biel will qualify for the Fed Cup Finals in Budapest, Hungary in April.
“The girls had some good results to start the year and I now hope they will carry that energy into this tie,” Canada Fed Cup captain Heidi El Tabakh said in a statement.
“Switzerland has a very tough team and will have the support of a home crowd, but I know that our team will fight until the very last ball with the goal of qualifying for the Fed Cup Finals in Budapest.”
Andreescu’s last appearance for Canada came during last year’s World Group II playoff against the Netherlands when she won the first and third rubbers to help the team to a 4-0 victory.
The 19-year-old Andreescu has played in eight ties in total and holds a 7-3 record in singles.
Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Toby Davis