Ace-in-the-hole means Miami wild card for Halep

Miami Masters tournament boss James Blake played a hunch to perfection by saving a wild card for Simona Halep, who will get back into WTA action this week after being cleared on spurious doping charges.

Former ATP player Blake followed his impulses in saving a space for the former No. 1 who had the weight of the charges finally removed after appeal to sport’s highest authority.

The former Miami semi-finalist and world No. 1  will be playing her first event since a positive test at the 2022 US Open – a test which began a life of hell as trace amounts of the illegal substance roxadustat were found in a supplement handed to her by a coach at the Mouratoglou academy.

Halep begins in the Miami first round against back injury comeback candidate Paula Badosa of Spain.

Blake, who once reached fourth in the ATP rankings, consulted with Halep’s former coach Darren Cahill, now in charge of Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner for the inside scoop on Halep’s progress.

The Aussie, who remains tight with former pupil Halep, assured the TD that Halep had been training for weeks and would be ready to accept a wild card.

Blake told Andy Roddick’s tennis podcast:  “I had a feeling we needed to be ready for whether she’s going to ask [(for a card).

“We had already gone through a lot of our wild card discussions, and we did, luckily, save one women’s wild card because you never know what’s going to happen.”