Simona Halep is set to kick off her clay season next week after accepting a main draw wildcard into a WTA 125 tournament in Oeiras, via Marca.
In Oeiras, 32-year-old Halep will play her second tournament since being reinstated and allowed to return to pro tennis.
After winning her appeal in her doping ban case, Halep played her first match in a year and a half in Miami three weeks ago. Although Halep lost to Paula Badosa in three sets in her comeback match, her first tournament back still went pretty well as the former world No. 1 was competitive and showed that she could still compete at the highest level.
Now, Halep is set to kick off her clay season at in Oeiras, which is a WTA 125 tournament or as some prefer to call it “the WTA’s Challenger Tour.”
For two-time Grand Slam champion Halep, this will be the first time in many years that she will be taking part in a WTA 125 tournament. However, this shouldn’t be particularly surprising as Halep is just returning to tennis, and trying to get some action and rhythm in a lower-tie tournament makes sense for the Romanian.
Also, this will mark Halep’s first appearance on clay since she lost to Zheng Qinwen in the 2022 second round.
Former #1 Simona…
