Dubai champion Simona Halep withdraws from Indian Wells with foot injury

Former world No 1 Kerber also pulls out of the season's first Premier Mandatory event

Simona Halep clinched her first title of the season at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. Getty Images

World No 2 Simona Halep and three-time Grand Slam champion Angelique Kerber have withdrawn from next week's Indian Wells after both players failed to recover from injuries.

Halep has not been in action since winning the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships last month, and the Romanian after the tournament that she had been nursing a foot problem.

Halep, 28, was champion at Indian Wells in 2015, the same year she won her first title in Dubai. However, the Wimbledon champion will not be able to pursue the double again after revealing she has still not shaken off the foot injury.

"I'm incredibly disappointed to have to withdraw from the 2020 BNP Paribas Open," Halep said in a statement on the tournament's Twitter account.

"Unfortunately, the foot injury that I picked up before Dubai is still causing me trouble and I will be unable to recover in time to travel to Indian Wells."

Former world No 1 Kerber has not recovered from a leg injury and the 32-year-old German is also set to miss this month's Miami Open.

"My patience is being tested these days as I'm still recovering from a left leg injury," the German, last year's runner-up at Indian Wells, wrote on Instagram.

"I was hoping to be ready in time for the upcoming tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami, but my medical team advised me to give it a little bit more rest."