Simona Halep withdraws from Dubai with ongoing back issues

World no. 3 Simona Halep has withdrawn from the next week's WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships due to ongoing back issues that have kept her outside the court since the Australian Open.

Like in Doha this week, Simona Halep is the fourth player from the provisional top-8 seeds who will not compete in Dubai, following Ashleigh Barty, Sofia Kenin and Bianca Andreescu. Simona reached the Australian Open quarter-final and suffered a 6-3, 6-3 loss against the seven-time champion Serena Williams in 81 minutes.

Serena controlled the pace with 24 winners and 33 unforced errors and dominated the shortest and most extended exchanges to leave Halep behind and advance into the last four.

Halep claimed the Dubai title a year ago, beating Elena Rybakina 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 after almost two and a half hours. Rybakina won the opening set thanks to a service winner in game nine before Simona responded in the second to force a decider. Halep hit a double fault to fall 3-1 down in the decider before she pulled the break back soon after that. The Romanian served for the triumph at 6-5, but the Kazakh broke back to force a tie break that Simona claimed 7-5 to celebrate the title.

"Unfortunately, I am not feeling 100% in my lower back, and I have made the tough decision to withdraw from @DDFTennis. I have great memories of winning my 20th WTA title in Dubai last year, and I'm disappointed that I won't be able to defend my title," Simona Halep said.