Halep to face Badosa in Miami
opener, Swiatek seeks Sunshine Double
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[March 19, 2024]
(Reuters) - Simona Halep will make her competitive return
this week after winning an appeal over a doping suspension when she
takes the court at the Miami Open where Indian Wells champion Iga
Swiatek will look to pull off the Sunshine Double.
Halep, who accepted a wild card into the Miami Open after her
four-year ban was cut to nine months by the top court for global
sport, will face Paula Badosa on Tuesday with the winner getting
world number two Aryna Sabalenka in the second round.
For Halep, the clash against world number 80 Badosa of Spain will
mark her first match since the 2022 U.S. Open where she was upset in
the first round by Ukrainian qualifier Daria Snigur.
Halep, a former Wimbledon and French Open champion, was suspended in
October 2022 after testing positive for roxadustat - a banned drug
that stimulates the production of red blood cells - at that year's
U.S. Open. Halep vigorously denied the charges against her.
The Romanian former world number one owns a 2-0 record in
head-to-head meetings with Badosa, having never lost more than three
games in a set.
Top seed Swiatek missed her Miami Open title defence last year due
to injury but returns in stellar form and fresh off a dominant 6-4
6-0 win over ninth seed Maria Sakkari in the Indian Wells final.
Now Swiatek will set her sights on capturing the Indian Wells and
Miami Open titles back-to-back, a feat known as the Sunshine Double
given the tournaments' respective locations in California and
Florida, for a second time.
Should Swiatek, who will face either Italy's Camila Giorgi or fellow
Pole Magdalena Frech in the second round, claim the Miami title she
would join Steffi Graff (1994, 1996) as the only women to complete
the Sunshine Double twice.
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Tennis - Wimbledon - All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club,
London, Britain - July 7, 2022 Romania's Simona Halep in action
during her semi final match against Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina
REUTERS/Toby Melville/File Photo
Florida resident Coco Gauff, who reached the Indian
Wells semi-finals, will enjoy plenty of crowd support as she returns
to Miami for the first time since her triumph at last year's U.S.
Open.
On the men's side, Carlos Alcaraz will also chase the final piece of
the Sunshine Double after a successful title defence at Indian Wells
where he beat reigning Miami Open champion Daniil Medvedev in a
rematch of the 2023 California final.
While the Miami men's draw is stacked, one notable absence will be
world number one and six-times champion Novak Djokovic, who
expressed a desire to limit the number of events he plays at this
stage of his decorated career.
The 36-year-old Djokovic is still without a trophy this year having
represented Serbia at the United Cup before reaching the Australian
Open semi-finals and suffering a shock third round exit at Indian
Wells.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Christian
Radnedge)
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