Bianca Andreescu: I heard my knee crack. It kind of went inwards

WTA Tour
A disappointed Bianca Andreescu

A knee injury forced Bianca Andreescu to retire from her WTA Finals match against Karolina Pliskova, but the teenager will await the outcome of an MRI scan to decide if she will play her final group match.

The US Open winner had the early upper hand against Pliskova as she was 2-0 up, but things went south in the third game as she injured her knee.

Although she continued to play with a heavily strapped knee after a medical timeout, she won only one more game as the Czech took the opening set 6-3.

The 19-year-old then decided to throw in the towel.

“I stepped weirdly on a return,” the fourth seed told a post-match press conference. “I heard my knee crack. It kind of went inwards. Putting pressure afterwards on it really bothered me. I could barely bend my knee. But I fought with the pain as much as I could.

“At some point an athlete has to say ‘stop’ and just listen to their body. That’s what I did.”

She added: “It’s disappointing ’cause this is the last tournament of the year, you want to go all out. You’re playing one of the biggest tournaments of the year, too. It’s not easy.”

The Canadian admits she probably would have played on if her team didn’t tell her to stop.

“I’ve fought through pain before, but this was different. It was like very acute,” she said.

“But it’s the last tournament of the year. I just told myself, Push it as much as you can. You’re going to have a good break after this. But yeah, maybe I could have pushed it more. I don’t know.

“My team said no. It was good that I stopped. Honestly, I could have kept going. If I did, then I would just be, like, whining on the court.”

Andreescu, who can no longer qualify for the semi-finals, will undergo an MRI scan before deciding whether or not to face Elina Svitolina in her final round-robin match.

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Bianca Andreescu

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