WTA Miami: Halep to face Badosa in comeback match, Sabalenka looms in second round

Former world No 1 Simona Halep will take on Spain’s Paula Badosa in her first match since her positive doping test at the 2022 US Open which led to a four-year ban which was earlier this month reduced to nine months and paved the way for the Romanian to return to the tour immediately.

Halep has taken a wild card into this week’s Miami Open and will face Badosa, who has been trying to gather steam on her own comeback from injury. The Spaniard is 3-4 for the season in 2024 but was not able to complete her matches in her last two tournaments, following which she also pulled out of Indian Wells two weeks ago.

Halep owns a 2-0 lead in head-to-head over Badosa and if she wins that first match, she will face Australian Open champion and world No 2 Aryna Sabalenka, who has a bye in the first round as one of the 32 seeded players in the draw. The Romanian leads Sabalenka 3-2 in head-to-head but none of those matches came before Sabalenka turned into a Grand Slam champion herself.

Moving away from Halep, let’s break down the draw by each of the four quarters:

First Quarter: Swiatek projected to face Noskova again in third round; Pegula in quarters

World No 1 Iga Swiatek will aim to complete the Sunshine Double for the second time in her career (the first one was in 2022) after winning Indian Wells on Sunday. The Pole will face countrywoman Magdalena Frech or Italy’s Camilia Giorgi in the second round and then could run into 26th seed Linda Noskova in the last 32. If Swiatek and Noskova do meet, it would be their third clash in 2024 with the Czech teen winning in Melbourne and Swiatek avenging that loss in Indian Wells.

Swiatek face 14th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova as her projected fourth round opponent but the Russian will need to navigate her way through a section that includes former world No 1 Karolina Pliskova, enjoying a resurgence in 2024, Croatia’s Donna Vekic (Pliskova and Vekic clash in the opening round), 21st seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Czech teen Linda Fruhvirtova.

Swiatek’s projected quarter-final opponent is fifth seed Jessica Pegula, who has begun the season on a mediocre note with a 5-3 record and still looking to reach her first final. The American has 31st seed Leylah Fernandez in her third round draw and either Dubai Open winner Jasmine Paolini, seeded 12th, or American Emma Navarro, the 20th seeded American who is enjoying a breakout season in 2024, in her fourth round section.

Second Quarter: Gauff could face Osaka in fourth round; projcted to face Jabeur in QFs

Now aged 20, US Open champion Coco Gauff is seeded third this week and will begin her campaign against Ashlyn Krueger or a qualifier. The American has Indian Wells semi-finalist Marta Kostyuk in the third round; and could face four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka in the last 16.

The unseeded Japanese player opens against Elisabetta Cocciaretto, who won a WTA $125K title on the weekend, and then could meet 16th seed Elina Svitolina in the second round, with 23rd Caroline Garcia looming as a potential third round foe. Osaka and Garcia have already played twice this year and have split their meetings.

Sixth seed Ons Jabeur will be hoping to get her season back on track, after beginning with a 2-4 win-loss record. The Tunisian could face Russia’s Anastasia Potapova or former Australian Open runner-up Danielle Collins in the third round; and either 10th seed Daria Kasatkina or 19th Sorana Cirstea in the last 16. Cirstea will face a Grand Slam champion in the second round with Angelique Kerber and Sloane Stephens facing off in a popcorn first-round clash.

Third Quarter: Rybakina, Sakkari projected to clash in quarters

The third quarter seed fourth seed Elena Rybakina as the top name in this section. The Kazakh pulled out of Indian Wells due to illness and will hope to catch up on her rivals in Miami. She could face 25th seed Elise Mertens in the third round, and 16th seed Veronika Kudermetova or 17th seed Madison Keys in the last 16. This section also has 43-year-old Venus Williams, with a wild card entry, taking on Diana Shnaider in the first round with the winner facing Keys in the second.

Fresh off her runner-up finish in Indian Wells, eighth seed Maria Sakkari will be hoping for another deep run in Miami. The Greek will face a tough opener – against rising Chinese player Yue Yuan or the dangerous Russian Anna Blinkova. Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska, a semi-finalist at the Australian Open, is Sakkari’s projected third round opponent; while ninth seed Jelena Ostapenko and 22nd seed Anna Kalinskaya looming as potential fourth round opponents.

Former US Open champion Emma Raducanu is also in this section and takes on China’s Xiyu Wang in the first round. A win there would pit her against Kalinskaya in round two.

Fourth Quarter: Sabalenka; Zheng could clash in a repeat of the Australian Open final

Second seed Aryna Sabalenka and seventh seed Qinwen Zheng are projected to meet in a repeat of the Australian Open final, which the Belarusian won, in the Miami quarter-finals.

If Sabalenka gets past the winner of Halep v Badosa, she could meet 32nd seed Anhelina Kalinina. The Ukrainian could meet former world No 1 Caroline Wozniacki in the second round, if the Dane can get past France’s Clara Burel in her opener. 13th seed Liudmila Samsonova and 18th seed Barbora Krejcikova are projected fourth round foes for Sabalenka.

Zheng, who is 3-3 since her Australian Open breakthrough, could face the 27th seed and former world No 1 Victoria Azarenka in round three, and 11th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia or 24th seed Katie Boulter in the last 16.