Andreescu to make 2022 debut Tuesday in Stuttgart

Bianca Andreescu is set to return to the court Tuesday for her first match in more than six months.

Andreescu is scheduled to take on Germany's Jule Niemeier in her opening-round match at the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart. The match will represent Andreescu's first competitive action since being eliminated in the second round of the Indian Wells Masters in early October.

The 21-year-old announced in December she would be taking a break from tennis, stating she wanted to “re-set, recover, and grow.” Andreescu wrote on Twitter she had been affected mentally and physically by “multiple weeks in isolation quarantining” and that her grandmother's stay for several weeks in a hospital's intensive care unit because of COVID-19 “really hit me hard.”

“A lot of days, I did not feel like myself, especially while I was training and/or playing matches. I felt like I was carrying the world on my shoulders,” the 2019 US Open champion wrote. “I could not detach myself from everything that was going on off the court; was feeling the collective sadness and turmoil around and it took its toll on me.”

Andreescu had a 16-13 record in 2021 and was ranked No. 5 in the world in July. However, her ranking has dropped throughout her break from the game, and she enters play in Stuttgart ranked 120th.

Placed in the bottom half of the draw Sunday, Andreescu would meet struggling world No. 4 Aryna Sabalenka in the second round with a win over Niemeier. Sabalenka is 7-8 in 2022, seeing her ranking drop after opening the year as the world No. 2.

Niemeier, 22, is 7-7 in 2022 and enters her match against Andreescu ranked No. 108 in the world.