Halep, former world number one in women’s tennis, loses in her return match after a year and a half

Due to doping punishment, he will not be able to compete after September 2022.

Simona Halep (Romania), the former world number one in women’s tennis, drank the bitter cup of defeat in her return match after a year and a half.

Halep defeated Paula Badosa (80th, Spain) 1-2 (6-1 4-6 3-) in the first round of the singles at the Women’s Professional Tennis (WTA) Tour Miami Open held in Miami, Florida, USA on the 20th (Korean time). 6) and lost.

Halep, who rose to No. 1 in the world rankings in 2017, is a top player at the 2018 French Open and 2019 Wimbledon.

However, the banned drug roxadustat was detected in a doping test conducted at the US Open in September 2022, and he was unable to participate in the competition for a year and a half.

Halep was on the verge of retirement after receiving a four-year suspension from the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) in September last year, but the punishment was reduced to nine months through an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Halep, whose suspension expired in July 2023 and had the opportunity to participate in the tournament, returned through the Miami Open.

Due to a gap of over a year, Halep had no current world ranking and was unable to participate in the tournament on her own, but the tournament organizing committee gave her a wild card. Badosa, who defeated Halep, is the lover of Stefanos Tsitsipas (Greece), ranked 11th in the world in singles on the ATP Tour. Badosa will face Arina Sabalenka (2nd place, Belarus) in the second round. Meanwhile, Sabalenka’s boyfriend, Konstantin Koltsov, a former member of the Belarusian national ice hockey team, was found dead at his lodgings in Miami. According to Yahoo Sports, Miami police “took over the case from investigators as an apparent suicide.” “There are no suspicions of murder,” he said. 섯다