The wait is over. Simona Halep is back on the field! Confirmed on his favorite surface after a 2 year hiatus

In the middle of this week, the Parisian organizers officially confirmed the presence of Simona Halep in the competition, thus marking her return to her favorite surface, clay, after a 2-year break.

The last time Halep played on clay was at Roland Garros 2022, the tournament where she managed to win the first Grand Slam trophy of her career in 2018.

After a more complicated period, in which she had some medical problems that forced her not to go to the national team for the draw with Ukraine, nor to participate in Oeiras or Madrid, where she had been invited, Halep accepted the wild card of the French, being confirmed on the competition website a few days before the start.

On the start list of the competition with total prizes worth 115,000 euros, which debuts on Monday, there are 32 athletes, among them the Romanians Ana Bogdan and Jaqueline Cristian.

Head of the series at the tournament in Paris will be the 21st player in the world, Emma Navarro. Also on the list are Sloane Stephens, Leylah Fernandez and Katerina Siniakova. In total, there are 8 players ranked in the TOP 50 WTA.

Simona Halep hopes to receive a wildcard at Roland Garros, but the chances for such a scenario are reduced if the French do not change their policy adopted in recent years. Specifically, the organizers prefer to offer invitations to players from the Hexagon, but they also have a tacit agreement with the Australian Open and the US Open, which means that they will also invite one athlete each from Australia and the US.

Simona Halep has played only one match since she received the right to return to the court. The Romanian participated in the WTA 1000 tournament in Miami, but lost in the first round against Paula Badosa, and since then a complicated period began for her. The intensification of training brought with it small medical problems for Simo, who had to skip the tournaments in Oeiras and Madrid, where she had received wild cards from the organizers. It remains to be seen whether she will go to Paris to play in the WTA 125 points tournament or if she will turn her attention to the grass season.