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Tournament director Alexei Selivanenko has confirmed that former world No. Simona Halep has accepted a wild card into Moscow, per Michal Samulsku. Halep, 30, debuted at the Moscow event in 2012 when she made the round-of-16.
Halep returned to the event a year later and made it all the way after beating Sam Stosur in the final. Halep last played at the Indian Wells Masters, where she suffered a surprise third round loss to Aliaksandra Sasnovich.
The Kremlin Cup in Moscow had been expected to feature Emma Raducanu as well but the US Open champion pulled out of the event.
Halep advised Raducanu to be 'very careful'
It's difficult for me to do an analysis. In my case, it took me a long time to win my first Grand Slam, I had won other tournaments before but it is of course not comparable to a Slam.
So I can't give my opinion too much. From my personal experience, I think you have to be very careful after such a big victory because being so young you don't have that experience of winning big titles. In Emma's case, it's even the first title of her career.
Either way, you won't know exactly what a player of this age feels like to win such a tournament," Halep said. Halep beat Marta Kostyuk in her Indian Wells opener, before losing to Sasnovich. "Always when I come back here, I feel great.
It's really nice to be healthy again and to compete at this level. Playing in October here, it's so special," Halep said after the match, per the WTA website. "I missed a lot playing tennis at this level this year because I've been injured and many months, I couldn't play matches.
I came here a little more aggressive than normal and I'm trying to improve my game and myself. My attitude was not great but I'm going to keep working and it's just a pleasure to be back and to win a match at Indian Wells."