Simona Halep spoke about the issues she faced upon her return to tennis, which did not unfold as she had hoped.
When she was cleared of suspension, Simona requested to receive her place in the WTA ranking from July 2023, considering that she served a longer penalty than the one set by the TAS.
However, the WTA players’ council refused this request, and she had to start from scratch instead of being accepted at the 54th position in the world rankings.
Simona blamed the players on the WTA council who voted against her. Who are they? At the time of the vote, the council included Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Garcia, Madison Keys, Jessica Pegula, Donna Vekic, Daria Saville, Gabriela Dabrowski, and Aleksandra Krunic.
They opposed Simona Halep’s reinstatement at the 54th position in the WTA, which she held when her official penalty expired.
„After being allowed to play, and only a nine-month ban was decided, I asked for the ranking because now I realize how difficult it is to wait for a wild card. You have to think: ‘How should I train? How should I prepare?’. So all of this is very tiring. I understand that the players’ council did not want to give me the ranking I had last July, and neither did the WTA agree. So this was very disappointing because I truly feel and believe that I deserve to reclaim it.
I never looked at points in my entire life. But now I checked how many points I need to enter the top 100. It’s around 900, so I will see. If I am good enough, I will be there,” Simona Halep stated for The Telegraph.
Simona also showed that she does not hold a grudge, and recently trained with Paula Badosa.