World No.1 Simona Halep has said that she ‘hopes’ to be ready for her first match at the Wuhan Open in China after suffering a setback during a training session on Sunday.
The French Open champion was conducting a hitting session with Petra Kvitova before halting proceedings due to her back ‘locking up.’ Halep is set to play in her first tournament since suffering a first round loss at the US Open last month. Last year in Wuhan she lost her first match in straight sets to Daria Kasatkina.
“I don’t know why it happened. It’s been a difficult 24 hours, but I hope to be ready tomorrow.” Halep said on Monday.
It is not the first time this year that the Romanian has suffered a injury blow. She has also previously dealt with issues concerning her Achilles and ankle.
Heading into the Asian Swing, Halep has recently said that her world No.1 ranking is justified because of her grand slam triumph at Roland Garros. The Romanian is one of two players to have already qualified for the WTA Finals in Singapore. The other is Angelique Kerber. She currently leads the world rankings by 2555 points.
“My dream was to become number one and I managed that last year and then my goal was to win a Grand Slam because some consider that a sign of being a true number one,” Halep told reporters, according to Reuters news.
“So my motivation was to win a major after I reached the top of the rankings and now I feel relaxed after achieving both. I am still motivated to win every match and now the pressure feels off, I can just feel the pleasure of playing.”
Looking ahead to Singapore, the 26-year-old is hoping to end her run of falling in the group stages. Halep made her WTA Finals debut in 2014 by reaching the final. However, since then she has only managed to win three out of nine matches played in the tournament between 2015-2018.
“The WTA Finals are really tough as they come right at the end of the season and you need to put all of your energy and everything together to play well,” said Halep.
“I haven’t managed to do that in the last three years, so my goal is to just get out of the group stage and into the semi-finals. But I know this will be difficult.”
Halep’s immediate focus will be Wuhan this week. Bidding for her fourth title this season, she will take on Dominika Cibulkova on Tuesday.
