Injury brings Simona Halep’s season to an unfortunate end at the WTA Linz Open
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Simona Halep
Two time Grand Slam champion, Simona Halep has really been tested to the limit this season in terms of injuries. The 30 year-old Romanian was thrown back from injuries time and again in 2021, not allowing her to display her true potential on court.
Most recently she played the WTA tournament in Transylvania, in her home country but was beaten by Anett Kontaveit in three sets in the final. After that heavy loss, Halep was ready to compete at the WTA Linz Open in Austria for the first time in 12 years via a wildcard.
Halep withdraws her participation from the Linz Open
In the opening match of the Linz, Simona Halep eased past Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus in straight sets and gathered momentum thereon to enter the semi-finals of the competition. However, just ahead of the match, the two-time Grand Slam champion announced some unfortunate news regarding her participation.
Halep, who was looking in good form throughout the tournament, pulled out from the semi-finals due to another injury, this time in her knee.
Being the No.2 seed at Linz, Halep staged an incredible comeback in the quarter-finals against No.7 seed Jasmine Paolini from a set and a break down in the second to eventually take over the match showing her quality. Her next opponent was set to be Jaqueline Cristian in an all Romanian clash for the semi-finals in Austria however, Halep confirmed the news on twitter regarding her withdrawal.
Halep’s battle with injuries continues
The 30-year-old has been irritated by nagging injuries and hasn’t been able to display her best tennis on the tour. Halep had picked up a troublesome calf injury at the Italian Open in 2020 which kept her out of this year’s French Open, the Tokyo Olympics as well as Wimbledon, where she was the defending champion. Moreover, owing to the injuries the Romanian even fell out of the top ten for the first time since 2014.
Ahead of Wimbledon this year, Halep was scheduled to play the tune up event at Bad Homburg in June 2020 after taking a wild card but the former World no.3 took to twitter to share the bad news with her fans. She shared a video in which she revealed that she isn’t physically fit yet to compete.
This time, it’s her knee that has stopped the Romanian star from going further in the tournament in Austria which she most likely could win but seems like the stars are not perfectly aligned for Halep to make a great comeback on tour. Nevertheless, we hope for a speedy recovery for the two time Grand Slam champion and hope to see her competing at her best, with the best.
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Nihar Khopkar
(191 Articles Published)