“Every match is crucial”. Simona Halep, honest reaction, after being invited to play in Paris

“Simona Halep, who still does not know if she will play at Roland Garros, received a wild card for the Clarins Trophy”, those from tennisactu.net announced about Simona Halep’s possible next tournament, a competition that will take place between May 13-19.

It remains to be seen what decision the former world leader will make, in the context in which she was unable to participate in the last tournaments she was invited to, due to the fact that she did not feel ready to compete at the highest level after such a long break .

Even though she did not officially announce anything about the competition in Paris, French journalists got in touch with the double Grand Slam champion, who had a first reaction after receiving the invitation.

Eight Top 50 players are expected in Paris, writes news.ro: Emma Navarro, Sloane Stephens, Katie Boulter, Leylah Fernandez, Yue Yuan, Katerina Siniakova, Clara Burel and Diane Parry. Two Romanians are also on the list announced on the competition’s official website: Ana Bogdan and Jaqueline Cristian.

The injuries suffered by Simona are not serious and she could return to the field very soon, but it is not known to which tournaments she will receive invitations. It seems that there is no such problem in Rome, and with regard to the Grand Slam at Roland Garros there are also major concerns. At the last appearance in the press, Simona stated that the French are very nationalistic and usually give wild-cards to athletes from Hexagon, so she is not sure if she will be on the guest list.

The organizers at Roland Garros grant 8 wild-cards annually, and what happened in the recent past proves that Simona’s fears are as logical as possible. In addition to the fact that most of the wild cards are awarded to French women, in recent years a trend can be observed that seriously diminishes the chances of our athlete to be on the main draw in Paris this year.

In 2023, 6 players from France received a wild card to Roland Garros, and the other two invitations went to the Australian Kimberly Birrell and the American Emma Navarro. Things were exactly the same in 2023 as well, from the point of view of the nationalities of the players who received invitations: in addition to 6 French women, the Australian Daria Saville and the American Katie Volynets benefited from this advantage.

As such, it is very likely that between the Tennis Federations of France, Australia and the USA there will be an agreement by which at least one player from the others will be invited to the 3 Grand Slams organized in these countries. This is evident if we look at the list of players invited to the last editions of the Australian Open and the US Open. In 2022 and 2023, the French Diane Parry received a wild card at the Australian Open, and this year Alize Cornet enjoyed such an advantage. One athlete from France also benefited from a wild card at the previous two editions of the US Open: Harmony Tan in 2022 and Fiona Ferro in 2023.

So, it is almost certain that the Roland Garros organizers will invite one player each from Australia and the USA this year, so there would be only 6 vacant spots left. These could all be occupied by athletes from France, but it would not be excluded that the French also make room for Simona Halep. We are talking about a player who wrote history in Paris, winning the trophy in 2018, after playing in the final in 2014 and 2017. The tournament at Roland Garros will take place from May 26 to June 9, so the list of players who will receive a wild card should appear soon.