Simona Halep back on the WTA Tour
Update February 7th 3:00PM : Simona Halep has confirmed via her Instagram account that she did receive a wildcard for the Miami Open and will be playing the WTA 1000 event in two weeks.
The former Grand Slam champion Simona Halep successfully appealed her 4-year ban in front of the Court of Arbitration for Sport. The court reduced her suspension from four years to nine months retroactively, making her eligible for an immediate return to competition.
Halep received an invitation to the Miami Open, a WTA 1000 tournament that starts March 20th. It is speculated to be a wildcard, but the language used in the letter she received (shown below) does not directly refers it as such, thus it could only be an invitation to attend the tournament as a spectator. The fact that the letter states the tournament offers hospitality to qualifying and main draw players could be a sign pointing to an official wildcard.
Simona Halep has played her last match at the 2022 U.S. Open, after which she was banned for four years for using roxadustat, a substance increasing the production of the erythropoietin hormone, commonly know as EPO. She was able to win her appel by proving that the blood test results came from the usage of a contaminated supplement.
Here is the letter sent to Simon Halep by the organizers of the Miami Open :
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