Simona Halep not 'game-ready' but likely inspired by Miami Open return for French Open clay court tilt says Kim Clijsters

Simona Halep will take a lot of solace from her return to action at the Miami Open despite being defeated by Paula Badosa says Kim Clijsters in particular ahead of the clay court season.

The former World No.1 returned to the Served Podcast with Andy Roddick for this week's episode and sees Halep as now having the motivation to head towards Roland Garros with some impetus after showing signs early on during her defeat to Badosa that the game was very much still there. Albeit she had returned only a week after being confirmed as having her four year ban dropped to nine months after appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and while she was training all this time, that is different of course to matches.

"I'm super happy that she [Simona Halep] was able to play and we got to see her out on court, just to see how happy she was and how excited she was to be out there and the support that she got. I thought it was great and what she deserved," Clijsters said on the latest episode of the Served with Andy Roddick podcast.

"You can tell that she is not as game-ready as she was a couple of years ago, which is normal. But just the excitement to get back, and I'm sure this is very motivational for her to go onto the clay court season and to prepare really well for the French Open."