Simona Halep offered Australian Open 2025 comeback opportunity after 2024 Grand Slam wildcard snubs
Simona Halep has been offered a qualifying wild card entry to the 2025 Australian Open. The tournament in Melbourne is set to be her first Grand Slam since her doping suspension was lifted.
Halep received a provisional suspension after testing positive for a banned drug called Roxadustat at the 2022 US Open. The player was handed a two-year ban after an initial investigation, which was later increased to four years after a second doping violation regarding her Athlete Biological Passport (ABP) came to light.
Simona Halep successfully appealed the punishment to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) earlier this year, following which her ban was reduced to nine months. Given she had already served her suspension, the former World No. 1 returned to tennis in March 2024, starting with a wild card at the Miami Open. She also received a wild card entry to the Madrid Open, but she pulled out, citing fitness issues.
Halep was then snubbed by the French Open, where she won her career’s first Grand Slam title in 2018. The 2019 Wimbledon champion then reportedly didn’t apply for an entry to SW19 and was also left out of this year’s US Open.
Simona Halep, presently ranked World No. 877, will now look to redeem herself at the 2025 Australian Open. The 33-year-old missed out on a main-draw wild card but received a qualifying-spot offer at the tournament.
How Simona Halep fared in 2024
Simona Halep, who resumed her tennis journey in March, didn’t collect a favorable result at the Miami Open.
The Romanian lost her opening match in three sets to former World No. 2 Paula Badosa. She was then on the sidelines for a few weeks due to fitness issues. Halep made a brief return at the WTA 125 in Paris but retired mid-match due to a knee injury.
"For a few months now, I have been struggling with a knee injury. It’s an injury I have never had before and it has been a tough one to manage, with the pain persisting, " Halep said of her injury on Instagram in July.
"It has been a very difficult period (almost two years) mentally and emotionally for me, and struggling physically on top of that definitely doesn’t help. I have decided to take the time needed to recover properly, rather than training and playing through pain," she added.
The player made a comeback in September, competing at the Hong Kong 125 Open. Here, she earned her first win since 2022, beating Australia’s Arina Rodionova in three sets. She was crushed by Anna Blinkova in the next round.
Simona Halep ended her season with a defeat to Yue Yuan at the Hong Kong Tennis Open.