Simona Halep to face Australian Arina Rodionova in first round of Hong Kong tournament

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep, currently ranked 1130 in the world, will face Australian Arina Rodionova, ranked 114, in the first round of the WTA 125 tournament in Hong Kong.

Halep and Rodionova, 33 and 34 respectively, have not played against each other before in the WTA circuit. If Halep defeats Rodionova, she will face Russia’s Anna Blinkova, ranked 78 in the world, according to News.ro.

The Prudential Hong Kong Tennis 125 began on Monday, September 30, and will end on October 6.

The last time Simona Halep played was in mid-June during an exhibition match at the Sports Festival in Cluj-Napoca. Prior to that, on May 15, she withdrew from the first round of the WTA 125 Trophee Clarins tournament in Paris due to knee problems. That was Halep's second match in the WTA circuit after returning to the tennis court in March, following a long suspension.

Simona Halep played her last official match before she was suspended on August 29, 2022, in the first round of the US Open. Based on a sample collected after that match, she was accused of doping with the performance-enhancing drug roxadustat and barred from playing.

Halep, the world no. 1 between 2017-2018, was allowed back on court after she appealed her ban at the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which found that she did not intentionally use the substance. In her first match at the Miami Open this year, Halep lost to Spain’s Paula Badosa, then 80th in the WTA ranking.

(Photo source: Mircea Nicolescu | Dreamstime.com)