Simona Halep And Garbine Muguruza Pull Out From Stuttgart Open

Published 04/23/2019, 2:23 PM EDT

The Romanian, Simona Halep played a sensational match against France’s Carolina Garcia in the Fed Cup 2019 semi-finals. However, soon after Romania’s Fed Cup 2019 defeat, she suffered a left hip injury. The 27-year-old, Simona Halep has pulled out from the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart due to the same.

Her fitness was astute at the beginning of the year, World Number two, Simona Halep reached the pre-quarters of the Australian Open 2019 and lost to Serena Williams there. Post that she reached the finals in Doha, quarterfinals in Dubai and semifinals in Miami.

“It was against Garcia in the first set, when I fell down,” Simona Halep mentioned. “I felt pain in the hip. If I’m not 100% I don’t want to step on the court. I’m also exhausted mentally because I gave my everything in that tie but unfortunately, we couldn’t win. That’s why I decided to pull out because I have to think about my health first.”

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“It feels bad because I gave everything – I really wanted to win the Fed Cup. I’ve been very sad the last two days. I’ve been through these moments many times, so I know how to handle it. I just need to recover mentally and physically and then just start again,” Simona Halep continued.

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Simona Halep hopes to be perfectly fit for the European clay season in the near future. She believes that relaxation time for two weeks at home will aid her with a speedy recovery.

Along with the 2018 Roland Garros champion, the World Number 19, Garbine Muguruza has stepped down from participating in the Stuttgart Open due to illness. Besides these two women, the three-time Stuttgart champion, Maria Sharapova also announced her absence from the Stuttgart Open.

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“To all my amazing fans in Germany that travel to see me play my favourite tournament in Stuttgart every year, I am really sorry to inform you that I have just ran out of time to be ready to play in Stuttgart,” Sharapova mentioned. “I am making very good progress but just not ready to compete at the highest level.”

As these WTA players withdrew, Angelique Kerber becomes the second seed of the tournament and the Belarusian, Victoria Azarenka will now face the Russian lucky loser Vera Zvonareva instead of Muguruza.

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Mahalakshmi Murali joined EssentiallySports in 2018 as a tennis author and has gone on to pen more than 1800 engaging articles, probing into various aspects of the sport and its illustrious players. With her expertise on the sport, Mahalakshmi has interviewed stalwarts from the sport such as Serena WIlliams’ coach Patrick Mouratoglou and Kevin Anderson’s physio, Carlos Costa. Equipped with her vast experience and a keen understanding of the sport, Mahalakshmi now co-heads the tennis department.