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World No. 2 Simona Halep pulls out of US Open

Earlier, a number of high-profile tennis stars decided to forego participation in the tournament, including women’s World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty (Australia), No. 5 Elina Svitolina (Ukraine), defending champion and No. 6 Bianca Andreescu (Canada)

Simona Halep EPA-EFE/IRIB

Simona Halep

© EPA-EFE/IRIB

TASS, August 17. Romania’s Simona Halep has withdrawn from the upcoming US Open, a prestigious Grand Slam tournament, she announced the news via Twitter

"After weighing up all the factors involved and with the exceptional circumstances in which we are living, I have decided that I will not travel to New York to play the US Open," she noted. "I always said I would put my health at the heart of my decision."

Earlier, a number of high-profile tennis stars decided to forego participation in the tournament, including women’s World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty (Australia), No. 5 Elina Svitolina (Ukraine), defending champion and No. 6 Bianca Andreescu (Canada), No. 7 Kiki Bertens (the Netherlands), No. 8 Belinda Bencic (Switzerland), and Russian No. 30 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and No. 32 Svetlana Kuznetsova. On the men’s side, defending champion and world No. 2 Rafael Nadal (Spain) and Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) also decided against travelling to New York.

Halep is a two-time Grand Slam champion, she won the French Open (2018) and Wimbledon (2019). Overall, she won 21 WTA singles titles. The Romanian is currently ranked second in the world.

The US Open will take place between August 31 and September 13.

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