Simona Halep recently returned to tennis at the 2024 Miami Open, and according to a recent interview, she was very nervous.
Halep's comeback to tennis would always be pretty quick and somewhat crazy. The Romanian initially didn't have a date for when the CAS ruling would come down but knew that if it were possible, she'd be able to play immediately.
The approach was to practice a lot and stay ready, which is what she did. The ruling came out just before the Miami Open, and she got a wild card into the event and eventually played a match there.
It was a very quick and certainly not calm period for Halep, who was quite nervous before her comeback. She hadn't played competitive tennis for more than a year, so it was always going to be a bit tricky, but she was actually quite nervous, and not just about tennis.
"I’m very nervous. I felt like I don’t know what to expect from people (in Miami). How it’s going to be — to be in the locker room again. Players’ dining (area). All this routine that I didn’t do for almost two years, it looked new for me."
The comeback itself was pretty interesting. She did play rather solid tennis against Paula Badosa but lost in three sets. This wasn't a huge surprise because fitness was obviously going to be a problem in the first few weeks.
It's why she's going to play another event ahead of the Madrid Open with the hope of getting a few matches under her belt. The other side was a war of words between her and Caroline Wozniacki, which wasn't a huge shock either.
Not everybody is friends on the WTA Tour, and some players would certainly feel some type of way after her suspension was reduced to only nine months.
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