The nightmare return to tennis for Simona Halep continues who has had to withdraw from the ASB Classic in Auckland to start the 2025 season which begins on December 30 and is played until January 5.

It features Madison Keys as top seed as well as Emma Raducanu, Amanda Anisimova and Naomi Osaka. But it won’t include Halep who has had to withdraw just as she returned to the court at the recent World Tennis League.

Halep was part of the team that included Nick Kyrgios, Casper Ruud and Jasmine Paolini and played in both singles and doubles. But she confirmed that she aggravated her shoulder and knee injury and has decided not to play yet in 2025.

She has had to also withdraw from playing qualifying at the Australian Open and has cited a return date of the Transylvania Open in Cluj which isn’t until early February so already the first month of the season is a no-go for the former World No.1.

“Hi guys, I wanted to wish you all happy holidays and provide a little update. After playing in Abu Dhabi, unfortunately I felt pain in my knee and shoulder once again,” she wrote.

“After discussing with my team at length, we agreed it is sensible to delay the start of my season. It’s not what I wanted but I would like to thank the tournament organisers in Auckland and Australia for the wildcards and I’m sorry I won’t be able to take them this time. I will rest up and intend for my next event to be Cluj where I can’t wait to play in front of the amazing Romanian fans.”

She spent most of last season on the shelf also with Halep finding wildcards initially hard to come by due to not having any semblance of ranking and also because of serving a drugs suspension for nine months for use of Roxudustat.

A fight she had to take to CAS to get appealed and she didn’t play from May until the end of the season where she lost early doors at a WTA 125k in Hong Kong. She then played World Tennis League last week in a sign that she is trying to play as much as she can in 2025.

Also she has remained in the news for her damning views on Sinner and Swiatek’s doping cases and the supposed double standards in her view. A point shunned this week by Andrea Petkovic. But now she won’t play any part in the Aussie summer and the nightmare firmly continues.