Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep has withdrawn from qualifying for the Australian Open and will delay the start of the 2025 season.
The 33-year-old received wild cards to qualify for the Australian Open and the Auckland Classic, which starts live on Monday Sky Sports Tennis among the competing names was the British Emma Raducanu.
Halep will be out of competition for at least a month due to knee and shoulder pain after performing at an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi earlier this month.
He plans to start his season at the Transylvania Open in early February.
“After the match in Abu Dhabi, unfortunately I felt pain in my knee and shoulder again,” she wrote on social media.
“After lengthy discussions with my team, we agreed that it makes sense to delay the start of the season.
“It’s not what I wanted, but I would like to thank the organizers of the tournaments in Auckland and Australia for the wild cards and I regret that I will not be able to accept them this time.”
Simona Halep was banned for four years, but it was reduced to nine months in March after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport
Halep, whose four-year doping ban was reduced to nine months, last competed in a WTA Tour tournament in October in Hong Kong.
In 2018, she was runner-up at the Australian Open, and later that year won major titles at the French Open and Wimbledon in 2019.
Halep is currently ranked 877th in the world after missing a Grand Slam since 2022 due to a doping case.
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