Simona Halep is gearing up to play next week’s VTB Kremlin Cup in Moscow, where she’ll go about the business of testing her back injury and making one last push to lock down the year-end No.1 ranking.
Halep took to social media on Friday to say she’s been working hard to stabilizing her the aforementioned injury.
A few weeks ago, the World No.1 reported that she had a herniated disc in her back and that she’d be meeting with doctors to plan on a rehabilitation course. She has been told that the injury is not serious and that with proper therapeutic exercises she can help to push the disc back in place or at least keep it stable, where it is.
Here is what she said about her rehab in an interview with John Clarke of the New York Times:
“I just saw another doctor today, and he told me that I am free to play. The problem is there, the disk has moved. But it’s not that dangerous. It’s not moving day by day. It’s fine. Exercises to make the muscles stronger in that area can push the disk back or just keep it where it is. It’s not that bad. There’s no risk in further damage. I have to do my rehab where I’ll work on my core exercises and get massage therapy. No tennis. I’ll wait until the tournament for that.”
Halep has a lead of 1,546 points in the Race to Singapore standings over Caroline Wozniacki, which means she’s pretty much a lock to finish the season at No.1 for the second consecutive year. Halep, who became the 13th woman to hold the year-end No.1 ranking in WTA history last year, will finish in the Top 5 for the fifth consecutive year.