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Simona Halep confirmed her participation at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow on Monday, signifying her return to the tournament for the first time since 2013. The Romanian went on to win the Kremlin Cup that year, beating Samantha Stosur in the final.
This will be Halep's third outing at Moscow, where she first played in 2012.
The former World No. 1 was last seen in action at the Indian Wells Masters, where she suffered a surprise loss in the Round of 32 to Aliaksandra Sasnovich. Incidentally, Sasnovich also accounted for another player who shares Romanian roots with Halep - Emma Raducanu.
Raducanu has frequently expressed her adulation towards Halep, and considers the former World No. 1 as one of her idols. Not surprisingly, Halep was asked during Indian Wells for her thoughts on Raducanu's recent US Open win.The Romanian replied that what Raducanu had achieved at such a young age was "extraordinary", before giving her some advise for the future.
"Yeah, I wish her luck," Halep said. "She has to stay focused, because, yeah, many, many years ahead of tennis, so I'm sure that she will win more. But, yeah, will be a little bit tough when she feels the pressure, I think."
Simona Halep also talked about how her own Slam progress compared with that of youngsters like Emma Raducanu. The 30-year-old asserted that it is important to remain focused after every big win, since it is easy to get carried away in the moment.
"I won my first Grand Slam late. I won tournaments before, but you cannot compare (that) with the success of (a) Grand Slam," Halep said. "I cannot really talk about that, but I feel like from my experience that you have to be extra focused after that (those) big successes, because you are so young and you don't really have experience on winning titles, because I think (US Open 2021) was the first title for Emma, and (it) was a Grand Slam."
"Darren Cahill will be my friend forever" - Simona Halep
On the personal front, Simona Halep got married to Toni Iuruc last month in her hometown of Constanta, Romania. But while one new journey has begun for the 2018 French Open champion, another has ended: Halep recently announced her split from her coach of six years, Darren Cahill.
Halep won her first Grand Slam and finished two seasons as World No. 1 under Cahill's guidance, and during the Indian Wells tournament she talked about how she'll always remain close with the Aussie.
"With Darren, yeah, it was not easy, but we have been together six years, great years, and he will be my friend forever," Halep said. "He's a great person. We (are) still talking. It's nice to end one tennis relation in this way."
The Romanian went on to give her thoughts on the possibility of Cahill coaching her opponents in the future.
"I will never be with Darren as opponents. Even if he will coach another player, for me will be the same," Halep said. "He's my friend and always will be. But I will be happy to see him coaching again. I'm sure that he can do another player to touch their dream, yeah, her dream or his dream."
The World No. 17 further revealed she has brought on two new coaches, both Romanian.
"I have two Romanians coach(es)," Halep said. "Daniel Dobre, who was with us before, and Adrian Marcu is with me now here. We worked together in 2013. So he knows me pretty well and I feel good with him, so we will stay like this."
