Joining the dots from Simona Halep's latest wildcard in Rabat to French Open chances

Simona Halep is playing this week at the Trophee´ Clarins on the WTA 125 circuit as she makes her clay court return for the first time in over two years. She recently missed Madrid due to injury but has also been handed another wildcard for next week. Is this a sign?

Halep will play at the Rabat Open which begins on May 20 which could point towards her getting a main draw wildcard yet for the French Open. She has been joined by a certain Paula Badosa in the wildcard stakes next week with Bianca Andreescu also making her comeback.

Andreescu will play for the first time since last August, while Badosa has been slowly getting better with a good run to the Last 16 in Rome. But she lost to Coco Gauff in the end. She suffered a spinal stress fracture this time last year which has been wreaking havoc ever since.

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Halep's French Open chances are due to her playing two weeks in a row which realistically she wouldn't be doing if she didn't have a chance. As a former World No.1 and former champion at the tournament, she is likely in the thoughts of FFT. This in comparison to others such as Emma Raducanu who will have to enter qualifying.

It could be yet that she receives a qualifying wildcard and has to do it the hard way. But either way she will likely get some matches in. She faces McCartney Kessler today at the WTA 125k in France. Emma Navarro though lies in wait with the top 25 American her first real test if she gets through of where she is.

Ironically joined together in the wildcard stakes, Halep's last match was against Badosa at the 2024 Miami Open. The Romanian showed signs of being back at times, but faded. It will be interesting to see how she does in France and whether this improves onto Rabat. But overall a pretty poor WTA 250 receives a big boost with two big names to add to Andreescu.

Melanie Lautrup

@melanie_lautrup

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Rabat WTA 250 Wildcards: 🇪🇸 Paula Badosa 🇷🇴 Simona Halep lopinion.ma/Tennis-Au-Gran…

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