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."- Halep to AP News
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.
