She was close to leaving tennis, but Bianca Andreescu is feeling refreshed and now hopes to help make the world a better place through sport.

Andreescu appeared on stage in 2019, winning the US Open with a shock 6–3, 7–5 victory over Serena Williams. Her success at Flushing Meadows came after winning the Indian Wells Open and Canadian Open and she rose to a career high of No. 4 on the WTA Rankings.

However, he struggled with injuries during the last few weeks of 2019 and his woes continued in 2020 as he only played a few matches and was unable to defend his US Open crown.

Even though he competed in 13 tournaments in 2021 and reached the Miami Open final, he is still far from motivated and has opted to take a break after the US Open.

The 21-year-old finally returned to feature at the Indian Wells Open in March, but says the time he has spent away from the sport is doing him good.

“I’m being completely honest here, but actually I wanted to quit this sport,” the Canadian told WTA Insider. “That’s really bad. I have the privilege of having this opportunity and doing all this. Now I am very grateful, more than ever. So I don’t want people to think, ‘Oh, you’re a baby, just suck it.’ But it was the accumulation of two and a half years. A lot has happened and I don’t want to deal with anything anymore.

“So I realized that I really love this sport and I want to continue, but not just to win Grand Slams, or to do this and that. I want to do something bigger in sport and I want to help contribute to a better world too. I realized that tennis was my path towards that.”

He added: “It was definitely not an easy decision but I said to myself, ‘Listen, I’ve been feeling a certain way for a while now.

One month off won’t cut it.’ I spoke to several people close to me about it and some professionals as well. It was a collective decision, but in the end, it was my final decision, of course. But I think it really helps. It really happened.”

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“I’m really excited to play again. The last few months have been tough but, as cliché as it sounds, I feel like I’ve found myself.

Andreescu will be in action at the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart this week and he is delighted to be back again.

“I feel like most of my press conferences are like ‘oh, I’m so happy to be back again’. It (the schedule) is not consistent enough. But that’s life and that’s been my life for the last few years,” he said.

“But I’m very, very excited to be playing again. The last few months have been quite difficult. But I feel as cliche as it sounds, I feel like I’ve found myself and I’ve actually developed a stronger passion for this game and I realized that I really love this sport.”

Article Bianca Andreescu ‘want to quit tennis’, but determined to ‘do something bigger in sport’ first appeared on Tennis365.com.