Romania’s Simona Halep decides to play in Fed Cup match as the Czechs bring their top players

Romania’s best-ranked tennis player Simona Halep has decided to postpone her nose surgery and play in Romania’s Fed Cup match against the Czech Republic on February 6-7, according to George Cosac, the president of the Romanian Tennis Federation. Halep announced on Sunday that she wouldn’t be able to play in the Fed Cup encounter, as she needed to have a nose intervention to fix a deviated septum. This nose problem has prevented her from training properly and playing her best tennis at the Australian Open, where Halep was eliminated in the first round. However, Halep seems to have changed her mind and she was included in the team that will play against the Czech Republic in Cluj-Napoca, alongside Irina Begu (number 31 in the WTA ranking), Monica Niculescu (40), and Andreea Mitu (96). The Czech team brings two of their best players to Cluj-Napoca: Petra Kvitova (number 7 WTA), and Karolina Pliskova (12), together with Barbora Strypova (48), and Denisa Allertova (66). Romania has played only once against the Czech Republic in Fed Cup, in 1980. The Czechs won that match. The Czech Republic has won the Fed Cup nine times, including the last two editions (2014 and 2015). Romania makes it among eight best Fed Cup teams editor@romania-insider.com