Simona Halep returned to the WTA tournament and will be present in the main draw of the tournament in Miami, where the organizers gave her a wild card.

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Simona Halep and Darren Cahill in the last training before the match with Paula Badosa

Simona Halep has been cleared to return to the tennis court after the TAS significantly reduced her ban from the 2022 US Open due to the Roxadustat doping scandal, and organizers of the Miami tournament have decided to grant her a wild card.

Halep, who is making her 10th appearance in Miami, will face Paula Badosa in the first round, a player she has defeated in both straight matches.

A surprise awaited the Romanian at the last training session. Darren Cahill, her former trainer and Yannick Sinner’s current technician, visited Simona and spoke with her before the match with the Iberian.

Darren Cahill spent a few hours with Simona Halep in the context of Sinner not yet arriving in Miami.

Simona’s best performances in Miami came in 2015 and 2019, when the 32-year-old Romanian reached the semifinals.

We remind you that four players from Romania are directly admitted to the main draw of WTA Miami: Sorana Kirstia (22 WTA – favorite 19 – directly accepted in the second round), Ana Bohdan (65 WTA), Jacqueline Christian (82 WTA) and Simona Halep (unranked) .

Simona Halep – Paula Badosa, 2-0 in straight matches

2022, Wimbledon: 6-1, 6-2 for Halep

2022, Madrid: 6-3, 6-1 for Halep

Opponents from Romania at WTA Miami 2023

And tour

Simona Halep vs. Paula Badosa (73 WTA)

Ana Bohdan against Kateryna Sinyakova (41 WTA)

Jacqueline Christian vs Diane Parry (61 WTA)

II round

Sorana Kirstea vs Angelique Kerber (607 WTA) / Sloane Stevens (44 WTA)

The WTA 1000 category tournament will be held in Miami from March 19 to 31. Played on hard surfaces, the main draw features 128 players and a total prize pool of $8,995,555. The champion of the overall title is Petra Kvitova (she is pregnant and will not participate in this year’s edition).

>> Simona Halep returns to Romania’s Billie Jean King Cup team

About the doping case of Simona Halep

• The news that Simona Halep was temporarily suspended for doping appeared on Friday, October 21, 2022.

• Simona’s case was heard by Sport Resolutions, an independent tribunal in London that hears doping cases in white sport.

• Halep was suspended for 4 years for two separate violations of the Tennis Anti-Doping Program (TADP): the presence and use of the substance roxadustat in a urine sample collected after an anti-doping test conducted at the 2022 US Open (1) and a violation of her biological passport (2).

• Halep was heard at the CAS on February 7-9, 2024.

• TAS reduced Simona Halep’s sentence from 4 years to 9 months.

• On August 29, 2022, Simona Halep played her last official match on the world circuit. At the US Open, in the inaugural round, our athlete unexpectedly defeated Daria Snigur (at that time, 124th place in the WTA, based on the qualification).

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