WTA: Halep confirmed in Doha contract with Nike:”I’m excited”

Australian Open finalist Simona Halep confirmed a contract with Nike on the fringes of the WTA tournament in Doha. This means that a possible crowdfunding in Romania is also off the table.

From Ulrike Weinrich from Doha

Simona Halep made her first appearance in the Khalifa International Tennis Complex on Tuesday in a dark green T-shirt with the famous Swoosh symbol. What has been rumoured for weeks is now certainty. The world rankings will be sponsored by Nike after the contract with their former supplier adidas was not renewed after four years.

“I’m really happy about this new collaboration. It’s been a dream ever since I was a child, because it’s a really good and big company,”Halep said, looking at her first match in a new outfit on Wednesday:”I’m looking forward to playing in the new outfit for the first time. I’m sure I’ll be nervous, but it’s a good feeling. I’m happy to be a member of the Nike family.”

Rumour has it that the management of the 26-year-olds had simply gambled away in negotiations with the Herzogenaurachers over an extension of the expiring contract. At the Australian Open Halep competed “topless” – meaning: Without an official supplier. According to her own statement, she had ordered the wine-red outfit online in a completely unbureaucratic manner. In their opening match, Halep will face either left-hander Ekaterina Makarova (Russia) or China’s Shuai Zhang at the Doha Premier 5 event on Wednesday.

The new treaty also removes the crowdfunding proposed by a former Romanian politician in recent days. Whether he really meant it or not, however, remains his secret. Halep, the popular heroine from Constanta, has won a prize money of more than 22 million US dollars in her career to date – albeit before taxes. The right-hander, who is managed by former top player Virginia Ruzici, has already signed a number of sponsorship contracts.

Vasile Dincu, former deputy prime minister in Halep’s home country, had recently suggested that each of the three million fans watching her “SI-MO-NA” defeat in Melbourne against Caroline Wozniacki on TV could only donate one euro, and then the whole of Romania would have the opportunity to decide what Simona Halep’s clothes said,”D And the good man meant it really seriously, although Romania certainly has other worries.

Halep, on the other hand, could not give a complete all-clear on Tuesday with regard to her last painful ankle:”Health comes first. I’ve been training this morning and I’m gonna go back to work out later. But it’s only tomorrow in the match that I’ll see what it really feels like,”said the two-time French Open finalist, who had to cancel her entry into the Romanian Fed Cup team last weekend because of the ankle bracelet. Instead, Halep was available to her crew as a cheerleader. Still without the Nike T-shirt.