Simona Halep will compete at the 2025 Australian Open after she received one of the qualifying wild cards.
After returning back to the sport following her reduced nine-month suspension from the sport, the Romanian player found herself in a tricky spot, as she now relies on wild cards to enter tournaments.
For someone ranked 877th in the world, that is less than an ideal situation, as Halep now has to rely on the tournament organizers if she wants to make progress.
She can't enter any WTA Tour-level events thanks to her ranking, so she needs to have a good tournament to earn enough points to break into the Top 100, which would guarantee her entries into majors.
In 2018, Halep played in the Australian Open final, but Caroline Wozniacki proved to be better than her, beating the Romanian player 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-4.
Seven years later, Halep will compete at the Australian Open again, but this time, if she wants to find herself in the main draw, the 33-year-old player will need to fight her way through the qualifying.
The tournament organizers have decided to award her a wild card, but not for the main draw, but for the qualifying instead. Although she would have likely preferred the main draw wild card, the Romanian was also happy about the qualifying wild card.
"The thought of returning to Australia after three years is exciting and I'm very grateful to the tournament for this opportunity. I have been working hard to get ready for the 2025 season."
"The Australian Open has provided me with some of the best moments in my career, so I can't wait to be back in Melbourne and playing in front of the Aussie fans."
For Halep, this will provide a great chance to prove her qualities again, even though getting through the qualifying draw might be tricky, as there are many talented players competing for a spot among the 128 players in the main draw.
Joining her in the qualifying draw, thanks to a wild card, will be the 2024 Australian Open Juniors' champion, Renata Jamrichova from Slovakia, who, with Halep, is the only other non-Australian female qualifying wild card recipient.
The rest of the qualifying wild cards in the women's singles went to Astra Sharma, Tina Smith, Petra Hule, Lizette Cabrera, Jamiee Fourlis, Melisa Ercan, and Elena Micic, who will all compete in the qualifying thanks to a wild card.
In the men's qualifying draw, Rei Sakamoto, who is also the 2024 Australian Open Juniors' champion, will be the only non-Australian recipient.
The rest of the wild cards went to Marc Polmans, Matthew Dellavedova, Blake Ellis, Edward Winter, Dane Sweeny, Pavle Marinkov, Hayden Jones, and Cruz Hewitt, who are all ranked outside of the Top 300.
Cruz Hewitt is a 16-year-old talented player and the son of the Australian legend Lleyton Hewitt, who is the former ATP World No. 1 and played in the Australian Open final in 2005.
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