Bad luck, it was with a retirement that she left the Clarins Trophy on Wednesday. In the intimate setting of Lagardère Paris Racing which hosts the WTA 125 tournament, Simona Halep was to play her second match after the restart, in Miami.
The Romanian agreed that playing in Miami wasn’t necessarily a great idea, but she needed it. His body made him pay for four days during which every movement was torture. In Paris, she surely found a more favorable setting for her return to competition than a WTA 1000. And opposition more to her liking.
Without staff, Halep pushed through the crowd of fans to reach center court. She found a quiet place to do her last warm-up before returning to the court where no one had forgotten her. “There are French girls playing,” a kid said to his friends. “No, I want to see Simona play,” replied another.
A first set in your pocket and reasons to believe in it
The first exchanges against the American McCartney Kessler (123rd in the world) showed that the Romanian had lost none of her knowledge of constructing a point. After opening the court, it was with a perfectly touched drop shot that she scored the first point of the match. The rest saw her logically alternate between the very good and the worst, notably with some rather nasty double faults. But as soon as she managed to take the measure of her opponent’s destructive forehand and settled into a rally, we quickly guessed the Simona Halep before the suspension.
With a good state of mind, by hanging on at all points, she managed to take the lead (7-5). But at the start of the second set, the call to the physiotherapist to manipulate his left knee, the one which was already creaking badly after the restart match in Miami, could legitimately worry. At 3-2 for Kessler, Halep told the referee that it was too much and that she gave up: “The court was heavy, I felt pain in my knee. A lot of pain and I didn’t want to take the slightest risk. »
On Monday, she told us how she didn’t imagine it would be so complicated to come back. Here, if it were necessary, is new proof.
2024-05-15 16:17:23
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