Simona Halep returned to the tennis courts in Paris, but she experienced some pain and retired from the match.
This comeback hasn't been pain-free for Halep because jumping back into tennis after not playing for over a year is giving her body some issues. In her first match back at the Miami Open, the Romanian dealt with a shoulder issue, which was treated during a medical timeout.
She finished that match against Paula Badosa but then opted out of playing the next weeks as she was trying to get back to full health. She ultimately signed up to play at the WTA 125K event in Paris, but she only managed to play one set there because the second set of that match never finished.
Halep won the opening set against Mccartney Kessler, but she retired down 2-3 in the second with presumably more physical issues.
It was not clear at the time of the retirement what exactly was going on, but in a brief chat with the media, the former world no. 1 confirmed that she had some knee pain during the match and felt that it wasn't worth playing, considering that the court was quite heavy as well, which put even more stress on the joints.
"A little bit of pain in the knee, and the court was a little bit heavy, and I felt like it was dangerous to continue, and I felt pain."
After one media member asked Halep whether it was the same knee that gave her pain in Miami, she confirmed that it was the same issue.
"Yeah. Same."
That's obviously not a good sign because persistent knee pain generally doesn't go away on its own, especially not one that persists for more than a month.
It remains to be seen what that means for her upcoming schedule because she was supposed to play in Morocco next week after taking a wild card into that event.
A few hours after her retirement, the Romanian player provided one more update for her fans, this time on social media, slightly also hinting at what her plans are now.
"Well, yesterday didn’t go as I hoped on court. The knee pain that has been lingering since Miami came back and unfortunately I couldn’t continue. It’s not the way I would have liked to spend my time in Paris, but no one said this comeback was going to be easy."
"I will rest and then keep working and keep believing in my journey. Thank you to those of you supporting me, I see your messages and they mean the world to me."
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