Simona Halep was due to play next week at a WTA 125 tournament in Oeiras, but has unfortunately had to withdraw due to a knee injury sustained at the end of Wednesday's practice. This is the latest blow after the former World No.1 had to withdraw from this week's Billie Jean King Cup due to medical reasons.
She instead headed to Portugal in order to play a lower-level tournament in the same move as Elina Svitolina who had so much success during her comeback last season. Initially set to play Rouen also next week instead, she decided to go lower than that after making her return at the Miami Open last month.
There she lost out to Paula Badosa in two sets and despite some glimmers that she was still playing to a good level, she will now not play until Madrid Open at least which is another WTA 1000. Even then, she could be ruled out through injury. In this practice, it was said that she felt knee pain and then decided to see how she felt on Thursday. But on Thursday, it was still there.
