“Recovery Requires More Time”: Simona Halep Announces Disappointing News Regarding Tokyo Olympics 2021

In a growing list of player withdrawals from the Tokyo Olympics this year, former world number one and two-time grand slam champion Simona Halep was the latest to announce her decision to skip the prestigious event which is due to start from 23rd next month.

However, Halep’s exclusion from the Olympics didn’t come off as a surprise as the Romanian has already pulled out of the French Open and the Wimbledon Championships this year due to a calf injury.

Tennis – WTA 500 – Stuttgart Open – Porsche-Arena, Stuttgart, Germany – April 24, 2021 Romania’s Simona Halep in action during her semi final match against Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka Pool via REUTERS/Marijan Murat

The former world number was playing at the Italian Open against Angelique Kerber when she sustained an injury while playing a forehand drive. Halep was in immense pain on-court as she immediately retired from the match.

Since then, the 2019 Wimbledon champion didn’t appear in any tournament. But, she did start her practice on grass-courts along with her coaching team a week before the start of Wimbledon.

As her grass-court training didn’t give much confidence for the Romanian, she pulled out of the tournament hours before the women’s singles draw was revealed. Due to her withdrawal, Aryna Sabalenka was seeded second at SW19.

Simona Halep took to twitter to share the news.

“Nothing brings me more pride than representing Romania, but sadly the recovery from my calf injury requires more time and I have made the decision to withdraw from the Olympic Games this summer”.

Nothing brings me more pride than representing Romania, but sadly the recovery from my calf injury requires more time and I have made the decision to withdraw from the Olympic Games this summer. After the disappointment of missing the French Open and Wimbledon… pic.twitter.com/Q6UziyHhpI

— Simona Halep (@Simona_Halep) June 28, 2021

Known for her incredible defense and movement on-court, the successive withdrawals of Simona Halep is putting her at the risk of leaving the top-10 rankings. Along with Elina Svitolina, Halep has been one of the consistent members on the WTA tour who maintained her top ranking for so long.

Before the calf injury, Simona Halep was actually planning to represent Romania in all three categories – singles, doubles and mixed doubles.

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