Halep also lost her second match of the tour after returning from suspension

Simona Halep played her second WTA Tour match since returning to the tennis courts, but lost again.

The 33-year-old Romanian player was very happy to return to the sport. Just days after she was cleared to compete, she accepted a wild card into the 2024 Miami Open.

Halep lost her first comeback match to Paula Badosa, but given that the Spaniard has been one of the best players this season, the 6-1, 4-6, 3-6 defeat was certainly a good start for Halep.

She then went on to compete in a lower level tournament in Paris, but was forced to retire due to injury. She later admitted that returning to Miami may have been a mistake, but her desire to return was understandable.

The former world No. 1 player then missed five months before returning for the WTA 125K tournament in Hong Kong four weeks ago. In the first round she beat Arina Rodionova, and in the second round of the tournament she lost to Anna Blinkova.

Halep didn’t even have to leave Hong Kong as her next tournament was held there, this time the WTA 250, Hong Kong Open.

In the first round of the tournament, the experienced Romanian player drew with sixth seed Yue Yuan. It wasn’t her best draw given her opponent’s seeding status, but it wasn’t her worst either considering the likes of Leila Fernandez, Sofia Kenin and Diana Schneider are competing in the tournament.

At the beginning of the match, both players fought for every point. The two-time Grand Slam champion had to save two break points in the second game of the match, but she did so and even created a break point in the next game.

She was unable to take advantage of this and in the next game Halep faced a break point again, but this time she was unable to save it, trailing 1-3. Then the Chinese tennis player could only focus on serving, and she did it.

Yuan was the better player in the first set, and after avoiding further break points, she won the first set with relative ease, 6-3.

But Halep didn’t want to give up so easily, and she didn’t. She showed exceptional tennis early in the second set. After trailing 0–30 on her serve in the first game, she won 12 of the next 13 points to break her opponent’s serve and lead 3–0.

However, that’s when her hopes ended. Halep simply couldn’t keep up until the end of the second set and her level dropped significantly.

She began to make more mistakes, and her opponent also played better, which resulted in a very unpleasant series of six games won by Halep’s opponent.

This meant Yuan won the match 6–3, 6–3 and advanced to the second round of the 2024 Hong Kong Open. Next she will have to play with either Nao Hibino or Alexandra Sasnovich.

Halep will be happy to play one more competitive match before the end of the 2024 season.