Former WTA No. 1 Simona Halep has officially been dropped from the upcoming US Open and is set to lose her ranking status in three weeks' time.
At the start of this year's US swing, the Romanian star was ranked in the world's Top 60. But she'll drop the 1,000 ranking points that kept her ranking afloat in the world's Top 60 as most of the points she accrued in the second half of last season are chalked off.
Halep dropped points in Washington (30), Canadian Open (900), and Cincinnati (60), which add up to 990 points. Since she participated at last year's US Open, where she lost in the opening round, she'll now lose 10 points with her absence now confirmed.
That means Halep's points tally will hit the zero mark as she was not capable of defending her points all season, and most importantly in the last phase of the season where a huge chunk of her ranking points accounted for her place in the Top 100 since January.
Halep has completed a calendar year away from tennis, first recovering from nasal surgery, which forced her to shut down her season at the end of last year's US Open, and then serving a provisional doping suspension after testing positive for the banned substance Roxudastat.
Earlier this year, she was hit with a second and separate violation of anti-doping regulations, linked to inconsistencies with her biological passport. She is still waiting for the verdict of her first case after presenting her arguments in front of a London court at the end of June.
The US Open issued a statement that Halep's automatic withdrawal was in line with the Grand Slam rulebook as, at the time of the qualifying draw, her provisional suspension was still in place. Halep's main draw spot has gone to 27-year-old American Taylor Townsend, who in 2019 made the fourth round of her home Slam as a qualifier.
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