The Romanian tennis player Simona Halep had to abandon, on Wednesday, for medical reasons in the first round of the Trophee Clarins tournament (WTA 125), endowed with total prizes of 100,000 euros, at the score of 7-5, 2-3 with the American McCartney Kessler.
Simona Halep PHOTO Facebook
Halep (32 years old, 1,149 WTA) could no longer continue due to knee pain and gave up after an hour and 28 minutes of play.
The former world leader, in his second match after returning from a doping ban reduction from 4 years to 9 months, opened with a forehand (1-0), then Kessler (24, 123 WTA) led 2-1 .
Halep reversed the score and was 3-2, but the American managed to get ahead again (4-3, 5-4). Kessler served for the set, but the Romanian managed to win the first set 7-5. Kessler had a better start in the second act, with 2-0, but Halep requested a medical timeout at 1-2, and then at 2-3 gave up due to pain.
Halep, a former double Grand Slam champion (Roland Garros and Wimbledon), was defeated by the Spanish Paula Badosa, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, on March 20, in the first round of the WTA 1,000 tournament from Miami (Florida), in his return match to the professional circuit after the reduction of the sanction in his doping case from four years to nine months.
Simona Halep did not receive a wild card for the Roland Garros tournament, but she received an invitation to the WTA 250 tournament in Rabat (May 19-25), according to the Moroccan media. Gabriela Ruse qualified, on Wednesday, for the round of 16 at Trophee Clarins, after 0-6, 6-1, 6-1 with the Chinese Lin Zhu, his next opponent being Kristina Mladenovic (France) or Nao Hibino (Japan).
