Three minutes a day, knowing about tennis in the world. Hello fans and friends, today is Wednesday, February 5, 2025, and welcome to listen to the afternoon newsletter brought to you by "Tennis House".

Let's start with a somewhat unexpected piece of news. This morning, Beijing time, in the first round of the WTA 250 Cluj-Napoca singles matchup, the former world No. 1 Halep who fought on home turf lost 1-6 1-6 to Italian Bronzetti and suffered a first-round tour. After the match, the two-time Grand Slam champion surprised fans by suddenly announcing his retirement on the field. Ha Mei said that her body has never recovered to its best, but she does not want to cry on this day, because retirement is a beautiful thing, "because I have been world No. 1 and won a Grand Slam championship." Life goes on, and I hope to see you again after the end of professional tennis! ”

The 1.68-meter-tall Ha Mei did not have a strong serve, but relied on a balanced forehand and backhand attack and defense, smart line change, and tenacious movement, and reached five Grand Slam finals and won two championships in the Mengnu era, and won the WTA year-end world No. 1 for two consecutive years, winning 24 tour singles titles. Unfortunately, in October 2022, he was banned for four years for taking a nutritional supplement provided by Mouratoglou's coaching staff that contained banned ingredients. Although her four-year ban was eventually shortened to nine months after an appeal, Halep was physically and mentally exhausted during the lengthy appeal process. By the end of the ban after a year and a half, the Romanian girl was in much worse shape. Although she has struggled to make a comeback, she has struggled to find a win and has been injured, which is the main reason why Halep decided to retire. Goodbye, Ha Mei! I wish her a better life after retiring!

Let's get back to the field. Last night, Beijing time, the ATP500 Rotterdam station continued to play the first round of singles. In a match that was the focus of Chinese fans' attention, Zhang Zhizhen lost to Russia's Rublev for the fourth time in a row, 3-6 4-6, and suffered another round of tours.

Top seed and Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz avenged her defeat at last year's US Open with a 7-6(3) 3-6 6-1 win on homegrown Van der Shanchop. Danish rising star Rune, Czech rising star Mensik, Leheka, Australian hare De Minaur and Spaniard Martinez also won and advanced.

ATP 500 Dallas Singles First Round: No.4 seed Shelton got off to a flying start with a 6-3 win over Australia's Vudjic. Third seed Paul also made it past the first round with a 6-7(6) 6-3 6-4 win over compatriot Brooksby. Briton Norrie defeated homegrown rising star Mickelson 2-6 7-6 6-1 to advance to the second round.

Women's Field: In the first round of the WTA 500 Abu Dhabi tournament, three Grand Slam champions lost back-to-back matches and all suffered a first-round defeat. Among them, former US Open champion Raducanu lost 0-2 to Czech star Vondrousova; Former Australian Open champion Kenin was swept in two sets by Russian Pavlyuchenkova; Former French Open champion Ostapenko was knocked out 2-0 by Tunisian sister Abdul-Jabbar.

Switzerland's Bencic, Canada's Fernandez and Czech teenager Oskova defeated their respective opponents to advance to the second round.

In a first-round doubles matchup, fourth seeds Zhang Shuai/Muradnovic advanced to the quarter-finals with a thrilling 5-7 6-4 10-8 victory over Buksha/Miki Kato.

WTA 250 Cluj-Napoca: Swiss Grubic, Serbian Danilovic, Russian rising stars Potapova and Blinkova, Italian Kocciaretto and American Stops all won in the first round and got off to a good start.

Finally, let's guess and recognize. The picture below is of a player training in a gym. Can you recognize who he is without prompting?

In the last guess, the golfer gave the correct answer. That's right, the person in the picture is Chinese player Wang Xinyu.

(Source: Tennis Home Author: Maverick)