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British former tennis player Annabel Croft believes tension between Simona Halep and Caroline Wozniacki will run high in the locker room after the Dane's doping remark at the Miami Open 2024.
Halep was handed a four-year ban by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) last year for failing a doping test at the 2022 US Open. The Romanian subsequently appealed the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), who reduced her ban to nine months earlier this month.
Given her provisional suspension began in October 2022, Halep was free to play tennis after CAS' verdict. She accepted a wildcard entry into the Miami Open women's singles main draw and lost to Paula Badosa in the opening round.
Wozniacki, on the other hand, advanced to the second round with a straight-sets win over Clara Burel. After her match, the Dane expressed her discontent over Halep's inclusion as a wildcard and apparently suggested the Romanian should've started from the qualifiers.
"If someone purposely cheats, if someone has tested positive for doping... it's my belief that I don't think people should be awarded wild cards. If you want to come back, you should work your way up from the bottom. She [Simona Halep] got her suspension reduced. It wasn't a clearance, it was a reduced sentence," she said during her post-match press conference.
Halep responded to Wozniacki's comments after she finished her match against Badosa in Miami, suggesting one person's opinion doesn't matter much.
"I didn't cheat, I didn't dope. It's better if we read the decision from CAS that it was a contaminated supplement. I never doped, so I'm not a cheater. Thank you to the tournament for giving me the wild card. Only one person being negative about me is not that important," Halep said.
Former World No. 24 Annabel Croft reckoned that the entire locker room would breathe heavily in Halep and Wozniacki's presence after their indirect exchange.
"Quite interesting in the locker room after that little sort of discussion in the press conference, wouldn't it? Don't think the atmosphere will be that good, it will be quite like cutting the air with a knife," the 57-year-old said while covering the issue with Sky Sports Tennis.
"Simona Halep's going to be a problem to a lot of players" - Annabel Croft
During the same segment, Annabel Croft defended the Miami Open's decision to let Simona Halep in, arguing that any tournament would field heavyweights to sell tickets.
"It's a very difficult one to navigate your way through because tournament promoters will always want to put big names on the court to get the bums on the seats," the Brit said, via the aforementioned source.
Croft further claimed that Halep's presence would bother her contemporaries because of her on-court prowess. The 32-year-old Romanian is a two-time Grand Slam champion and has 24 singles titles to her name.
"But she's going to be a problem to a lot of players because of the way she hits the ball and she's been a great champion, you never write them off but clearly, the rest of the tour is not so happy about it," Croft added.
While Simona Halep is out of contention at the Miami Open, Caroline Wozniacki prepares to take on Anhelina Kalinina in a second-round showdown on Thursday, March 21.
