An injury to rising Canadian tennis star Bianca Andreescu will keep her off the country's Fed Cup team for a World Group playoff against reigning champion Czech Republic later this month.
Tennis Canada announced Wednesday that the 18-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., was not named to the team because of an injury. Andreescu, ranked 23rd in the world after an excellent start to 2019, retired from a fourth-round match at the Miami Open last month with an ailing shoulder.
The Tennis Canada press release does not mention Canada's second highest-ranked player -- Eugenie Bouchard, who also is not in the lineup. The native of Westmount, Que., has not played since dropping a Miami Open qualifying match and has withdrawn from two tournaments since then.
Canada's roster will include Vancouver's Rebecca Marino, Ottawa's Gabriela Dabrowski, Toronto's Sharon Fichman and top junior Leylah Annie Fernandez of Laval, Que, who will make her Fed Cup debut. The tie is April 20-21 on a clay court.
"Our players have all had some good results since the start of the year and we are hoping to capitalize on their momentum going into this match-up," Canadian Fed Cup captain Heidi El Tabakh said. "We recognize that this tie represents a challenge for us as we are playing a great team who is proficient on a clay-court surface."
The Czech Republic roster does not include its top three singles players -- world No. 3 Petra Kvitova, No. 4 Karolina Pliskova and No. 41 Katerina Siniakova.
Marketa Vondrousova, ranked 45th, leads the Czech team. Other players are Karolina Muchova, Marie Bouzkova, Lucie Safarova and Barbora Krejcikova.
Marino is the top-ranked singles player on the Canadian roster at No. 204.
Andreescu won two of the first three matches for Canada in a road win over the Netherlands earlier this year.
