Simona Halep
Simona Halep of Romania celebrates a point against Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland during their women's singles tennis match of the WTA Finals at the Singapore Indoor Stadium October 29, 2015. Reuters/Edgar Su

Top seed Simona Halep and Caroline Garcia will go head-to-head for the first time in the second round of the 2016 Apia International Sydney. Halep and Garcia are set to clash at Ken Rosewall Arena on one of Tuesday’s second round matches in the women’s singles event.

Halep will be playing her first match of the 2016 tennis season. She was forced to pull out from Brisbane last week due to an Achilles injury. The Romanian withdrew hours before her match against Victoria Azarenka, who went on to claim her second Brisbane victory after beating fourth seed Angelique Kerber in the finals 6-3 6-1. Halep’s injury was reportedly “on the mend,” and she will be looking to use the Sydney event ahead of this season’s first grand slam tournament at the Australian Open.

Halep pulled out of the Sydney event due to an illness last year. In 2014, she was upset in the first round by American Madison Keys 6-1 6-4.

Meanwhile, the unseeded French tennis player chose Sydney instead of Brisbane as her lead-up event to the Australian Open. She is coming off from her undefeated streak at Hopman Cup last week. The 34th-ranked athlete defeated Britain’s Heather Watson 6-3 5-7 6-3, Germany’s Sabine Lisicki 6-2 7-6 (5) and Australia’s Daria Gavrilova 6-4 7-6(7) in her singles’ matches. It is expected that Garcia will use her "weapons" to give trouble to the World No. 2 Halep, according to the tournament's official site.

Garcia won her lone and only title at the inaugural WTA 125K event in Limoges when she defeated Louisa Chirico in straight sets 6-1 6-3 in November 2014. She finished as a runner-up twice at Acapulco and Monterrey events (lost to Timea Bacsinszky in both finals). Garcia ended her 2015 season as World No. 34, the second time in her career. She finished as World No. 38 in 2014.

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