Simona Halep Announces Big News For 2020

The Romanian tennis star, Simona Halep will be adding more matches to her Grand Slam schedule next year. Along with singles, she intends to mixed doubles at the majors. After she lifted up the Wimbledon trophy this year, Halep assured to win a medal for Romania at Tokyo Olympics 2020. 

As practice for the quadrennial event of sports, Halep considers her appearance in the mixed doubles discipline at Australian Open 2020, French Open 2020 and Wimbledon 2020.

“I have only Melbourne, maybe the French Open, and grass. The grass is a little bit dangerous because the surface is tough and you can get hurt a little bit with the men’s serve,” said Simona Halep. “But the goal is to play all the time mixed doubles with my partner to get used to the game, to be able to achieve a good result at the Olympics.”

The London Olympics 2012 was her maiden appearance at the Olympics Games. Back then, she was ranked 50th in the world and lost in the first round to Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan in straight sets. Also, she was eliminated from the first round of the women’s doubles category. During Rio Olympics 2016, Halep was inferred with Zika virus and hence she couldn’t participate.

After she became the first Romanian to achieve the title at the ‘Mecca of Tennis’, Wimbledon and play in the presence of the Royal Family, the Romanian sports authority announced Simona Halep to be the flag-bearer for Romania at Tokyo Olympics 2020.

During Rio Olympics 2016, the Romanian pair Horia Tecau and Florin Mergea achieved a silver medal for Romania. They lost in the finals against the Spaniards, Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez in three sets. Simona Halep eyes to become the third Romanian to achieve an Olympic medal. Earlier, she played doubles tennis at the US Open 2015 and French Open2016 with Horia Tacu.

World Number six, Halep is presently competing at China Open 2019. She won her opening round match against Rebecca Peterson and now, she sets up her second-round clash with Ekaterina Alexandrova from Russia.

Last week in Wuhan, Simona Halep retired from her second match due to a lower back injury. The pain is still persisting in her back, she has not completely recovered from it and she is risking her injury by playing in Beijing.