Melbourne: Bianca Andreescu, a 21-year-old Canadian tennis star and the 2019 US Open champion, became the first high-profile woman player to withdraw from the Australian Open — the first major of 2022 - owing to mental health difficulties resulting from "quarantining" on Tuesday.

Andreescu, who peaked at No. 4 in the world in October 2019 before slipping to No. 46 now, claimed on Twitter that she doesn't feel like herself on a lot of days, "particularly during practising and/or playing matches."

"As you all know, the previous two years have been quite tough for me for a lot of reasons," Andreescu wrote in a lengthy message shared on social media. I spent several weeks in isolated quarantining, especially this year, which had a significant mental and physical impact on me. In addition, my grandma was in the ICU for several weeks due to a COVID infection, which impacted me hard.

"I didn't feel like myself on a lot of days, especially when I was training and/or playing matches." I felt as though I was bearing the weight of the entire planet on my shoulders. "I couldn't separate myself from what was going on off the court; I was experiencing the collective anguish and chaos around me, and it was taking its toll on me," Andreescu said.

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