Simona Halep admits to feeling 'nervous' ahead of her return to tennis following doping appeal

Flying to Florida for the Miami Open, where she would be playing in a professional tennis match for the first time in 1 1/2 years after a doping ban was reduced on appeal, Simona Halep turned to her mother and offered a bit of a confession.

"I'm very nervous," Halep, a two-time Grand Slam champion, recalled telling Mom.

She wasn't sure what it would be like — on the court or off. And as she prepares to resume what she called her career's "second part" during a video interview with The Associated Press from her home in Bucharest, Romania, Halep is more comfortable with her surroundings but not quite certain how close she can get to her old self as an athlete.

"I felt like I don't know what to expect from people (in Miami). How it's going to be — to be in the locker room again. Players' dining (area). All this routine that I didn't do for almost two years, it looked new for me," said Halep, whose upcoming tournaments are next week in Oeiras, Portugal, and the week after that in Madrid.

"And when I arrived on-site, the love that I received from the people that are working for the tournament, the security, and all the people around, and also the players, helped me to just forget everything. And it felt like I never (was) away," said the 32-year-old Halep, who has been working with new coach Carlos Martinez.

"So it was a great feeling, a great energy, and I was really happy deep down that I am, again, part of tennis and part of this sport that I love. So for me, it was a great experience, much better than I expected. And this made me feel that, OK, now I want to go back and do my best and see how good I can be, still."

Halep once was among the best in the world at what she does. She knew it. Everyone else did, too. The WTA rankings said so: Halep reached No. 1 in 2017 (she is No. 1,144 this week). As did her results: Halep was the runner-up at three major tournaments before breaking through by winning championships at the French Open in 2018 and at Wimbledon in 2019 (defeating Serena Williams in the final).

Now it's harder for her to know what she's capable of with a racquet.

There's the lack of matches, even if she was encouraged by the only one so far, a three-set loss to former No. 2 Paula Badosa in Miami on March 19. Questions about her fitness, a key component of her playing style. And while she worked while barred, it was not easy to find the motivation without knowing when — or, indeed, if — she'd compete again.

"It's been a tough period. ... It was difficult to manage, but now it's a different story," Halep said. "And I feel relief, I feel the freedom and" — here, she let out a laugh — "yeah, I am back in business."

She thought her career might be finished when she was given a four-year penalty by the International Tennis Integrity Agency for testing positive for the banned blood-boosting drug Roxadustat at the 2022 U.S. Open, where she lost in the first round.