(Reuters) – Canadian coach Bianca Andreescu Sylvain Bruneau, who had the positive test for COVID-19 among those who submitted more than 70 players to a 14-day quarantine ahead of the Australian Open, said Friday that he was ready to lead his player.
Bruneau was one of five passengers from three charter flights flown by players last month, starting Monday in Melbourne, that had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
“I was lucky not to get sick,” Bruneau said in a video call to reporters on Friday. “I had a fever one night, that’s it. But it’s been pretty awkward anyway and I’m going to limit that to it for now on that topic. “
Andreescu, number eight in the world, who has not competed since suffering a knee injury at the WTA 2019 finals in Shenzhen, was on the same flight as Bruneau and as a result e among those who had to part in their hotel rooms.
Andreescu, who became Canada ‘s first Grand Slam singles champion with her 2019 US Open win, had been expected to compete in a tune event this week but went on to -out at the last minute to focus on more training for the Grand Slam.
Bruneau, who helped lead Andreescu through her 2019 breakout season, said that although the 20-year-old had returned from layoffs long before, this was unchecked land.
“Of course, this didn’t turn out the way we wanted because we counted we had two weeks of preparation and the lead contests that we couldn’t do on both counts,” Bruneau said.
“But I have to say we had a good lead time before we traveled to Australia, things were going nicely and smoothly and she was making progress and we were heading in the right direction. ”
Andreescu, who never reached the third round in her two open appearances in Australia, will face Mihaela Buzarnescu, who lost the Roman, in the first round.
Bruneau said Andreescu has been a daily practice and has played a lot of sets since he came out of quarantine.
“It feels great. Her level is slowly recovering where it needs to be, but it’s going to be completely different to go back and compete, ”he said.
“I have a lot of confidence in her, in her skills to deal with that kind of pressure and situation, but again we have to wait and see exactly how it works.”
Reporting with Frank Pingue in Toronto; Edited by Ken Ferris