Two-time Grand Slam winner Simona Halep will not be back on court until 2023 after undergoing nose surgery. On Twitter, the tennis player from Romania showed herself from her hospital bed with a large plaster over her nose
The surgery was necessary on medical advice to improve her breathing functions, the 30-year-old explained. She had had the breathing problems for many years, and recently they had become worse.
At the same time, she took the opportunity to have plastic surgery, “which I had wanted to do for a long time because I never liked my nose. So I went through with it and solved the functional and the aesthetic part.” She hadn’t been able to do it sooner, she said, because she never found the necessary three months’ rest, as tennis had always been her top priority.
A rethink was triggered by the US Open, where the current world number 9 was one of the favourites to be eliminated in the first round. She had realised “that I was completely mentally exhausted”. In February, she was even on the verge of ending her career, but after switching to coach Patrick Mouratoglu, she managed to return to the top ten. Now, she says, is the right time to retire for a while.
“My 2022 season is over. See you on the court in 2023,” the former world number one wrote.
