Simona Halep is one of the toughest players on the WTA circuit and the Romanian, who will have many punters backing her, is going to take some stopping at the 2021 Australian Open.
The world number two is expected to be in the mix once again for the first Grand Slam event of the year, having shown signs of promise in 2020. Halep managed to secure her last Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2019, but fell short of major success over the last 12 months. In a year that saw Sofia Kenin, Naomi Osaka and Iga Swiatek claim Grand Slam wins, Halep might well be disappointed she could not have replaced one of those names on the list and is 9/1 for the title in the tennis Australian Open odds.
However, there were certainly highlights in 2020 that will give her backers in the tennis betting markets cause for optimism ahead of the next Grand Slam in Melbourne. Halep managed to capture her 20th career title at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships back in February. It was Halep who saw off the challenge of Elena Rybakina, in a final which has since gone on to win the award for 2020 Match of the Year. In that clash, Halep rallied from a set down to survive, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) against her then 20-year-old Russian opponent.
Since that win in Dubai, Halep went on to win two further titles, including the Internazionali BNL d’Italia with victory over the Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova. For many, a year with three titles would be one to be savoured, but such are her standards, Halep will be expecting more in the next 12 months to come.
While Halep has still found herself winning titles, she has been forced to do so while nursing her ongoing hernia problems. The 29-year-old has been dealing with the issue since she was 17 after suffering a herniated disc. Now Halep has revealed she has four hernias, and admitted “they are not easy to manage”.
Halep has admitted she is “constantly in some sort of pain” and it’s something she has had to manage for the vast majority of her career. That makes her achievements in the sport even more impressive and is another reason she is seen as one of the toughest opponents on the circuit.
With 2020 providing three different winners of the Grand Slam events that took place, it seems the major events are far more open than they have been in recent years, which means picking an outright winner in the betting has been more tricky. While the likes of Osaka and Serena Williams are 7/1 and 9/1 respectively to win the Aussie Open, Halep certainly looks capable of being in the mix for the title in Melbourne.
The Romanian star managed to reach the final of the tournament back in 2018, only to lose out to Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki. Halep knows she has the game on the hard court surface to go all the way, which is why punters are likely to get behind her to finally take the title in the state of Victoria this time around.
