Simona Halep suffered a loss in her first match back on the court. The former women's No. 1, who had not played since the 2022 US Open, went down in the first round of the Miami tournament to Paula Badosa after a 6-1, 4-6, 3-6 comeback. The match lasted exactly two hours.
Halep, who entered the competition as a wild card, started very strongly and only gave the Spaniard a game in the opening set. In the second set, Badosa started with an early break and did not lose the initiative until the end. In the closing third set, the Spaniard again broke early, but this time Halep managed to get back, only to be broken twice more before the end of the set.
Thus, the Romanian, a two-time champion in the Grand Slam tournaments, did not manage to reach the second round, where Badosa faces a tough clash with second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka.
The representative of Belarus decided to participate in Miami despite the death of her boyfriend Konstantin Koltsov, who passed away at the age of 42. /BGNES
