​​​​​​​The organizers of the “WTA 1000” tournament in Miami announced the program for Tuesday, as part of which Simona Halep will return to the tennis court after a year and a half break.

>> An important presence in Simona Halep’s camp before the first WTA match in Miami

Simona Halep will play Paula Badosa on Tuesday at 22:00 at WTA Miami 2024

The pause for Simona is over, the TAS decision to reduce the punishment for the doping scandal (from 4 years to 9 months) helped the ex-WTA leader to return to sports competitions.

• Thus, the match between Simona Halep and Paula Bados will be the fourth (last) in the stands and will start no earlier than 16:00 local time (22:00 Romanian time). The match will be on LiveBLOG on HotNews.ro and live on DigiSport 2.

This duel will be preceded by Peyton Stearns – Yafan Wang (from 17:00 Romanian time), Diana Schneider – Venus Williams and Clara Burel – Caroline Wozniacki.

Former world No. 2 Paula Bados, meanwhile, has dropped to 80th in the world rankings due to numerous injuries that have kept her from reaching the level of previous years.

The Spaniard has three titles to his credit: Indian Wells (2021), Belgrade (2021) and Sydney (2022).

The winner of Halep and Bados was due to play Aryna Sabalenko (2 WTA) in the second round, but she is likely to withdraw following the death of her boyfriend.

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) – Tuesday, grandstand, no earlier than 22:00

Ana Bohdan vs Kateryna Sinyakova (41 WTA) – Tuesday, court 1, around 18:30

Jacqueline Christian vs Diane Parry (61 WTA) – Tuesday, Court 7, around 9.30pm

II round

Sorana Kirstea vs Angelique Kerber (607 WTA) / Sloane Stephens (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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>> Doping control laboratory in Romania reacts after Simona Halep says it almost destroyed her career