Simona Halep Withdraws From 2025 Australian Open After Another Injury Setback
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Simona Halep's nightmare part of her tennis career continues after she was forced to withdraw from the 2025 Australian Open.
Halep spent more than a year away from the tennis courts when she fought a legal battle to prove her innocence after testing positive for a banned substance, roxadustat.
Ultimately, she was able to win that battle, but her return to the tennis courts wasn't ideal. She made her first appearance already at the Miami Open last year, but as she later admitted, that return was probably a but rushed.
The Romanian then played a few lower-tier events, and she ended the 2024 season with a first-round loss in Hong Kong. Before starting the 2025 season, Halep chose to play at the World Tennis League in Abu Dhabi to compete against some of the best players in the world.
She played three doubles matches with Jasmine Paolini, winning one of those, and also one singles match, which was a 4-6 loss to Elena Rybakina.
After that, Halep was set to compete at the 2025 ASB Classic in Auckland after receiving a wild card, and then at the Australian Open, as the 33-year-old received a qualifying wild card.
Unfortunately, those plans will not materialize, as she was forced to withdraw from both tournaments and postpone her start to the 2025 season.
The former WTA World No. 1 player announced her decision on Instagram, saying that during the exhibition event in Abu Dhabi, she felt pain in her knee and shoulder.
"Hi guys, I wanted to wish you all happy holidays and provide a little update. After playing in Abu Dhabi, unfortunately I felt pain in my knee and shoulder once again."
Obviously, Halep discussed the situation with her team. At 33, she is aware that she doesn't have many years of her tennis career left, and the Romanian player certainly wants to avoid any long-term injury.
That's why, after a discussion with her team, she chose to withdraw from the ASB Classic in Auckland and the Australian Open, postponing her start of the new season.
"After discussing with my team at length, we agreed it is sensible to delay the start of my season. It's not what I wanted, but I would like to thank the tournament organizers in Auckland and Australia for the wild cards, and I'm sorry I won't be able to take them this time."
The new season will now start a bit later for Halep. She wants to compete at the 2025 Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca, which is a WTA 250 tournament running from February 3rd to 9th in Romania.
Halep loves playing in front of her home fans, and it's not a surprise that after postponing the start of her season, she chose this event to come back.
"I will rest up and intend for my next event to be Cluj, where I can't wait to play in front of the amazing Romanian fans."
Latest Comments
- Kyrgios will do anything to stay in the news.shirley19-12-2024
- A technical error.
MrMustard18-12-2024 - All that is said , all that is done. Nick has 0 grand slams wins. Everything else is hot 🥵 air.MrMustard18-12-2024
- All that is said , all that isMrMustard18-12-2024
- Kyrgios is a jerk.shirley17-12-2024
- If Jessica Pegula had to undergo such horror for using a bannes substance, so do these two tennis players. Penalty should apply to all players regardless of their excuses. They are professionals and know better!!
Stella112-12-2024 - All players should be treated the same for taking banned substances, if your no 1 in the world or no 300 man or woman you should not be allowed to keep playing,,VPH108-12-2024
- Ah, censored again. No one gets to read my comment. LOLjjluvsports08-12-2024
- Reynolds, could you list all the wars started by the U.S. and U.K., or will you run out of paper? Hypocrisy.jjluvsports06-12-2024
- IDK, it looks like to me that Raducanu should praise herself and her team for 'gaming the system' as in playing the points and ranking game. When you look at her season of wild cards, skipping tournaments (including the Paris Olympics!), retiring from losing matches and avoiding qualifying rounds, it seems like there was some plan to move up the ranks without actually playing a lot of tennis. And it worked! Congrats!RealityCheckers04-12-2024