Athlete of the Week on RRI – Tennis player Simona Halep

The tennis tournament in Madrid has become a tradition for Romanian tennis players. One of the reasons is that the main sponsor of the competition is Ion Tiriac, a former member of Romania’s Davis Cup team and currently a renowned businessman. Another reason is the prize money. This year, in both the men’s and in the women’s singles, total prizes stood at 912 thousand euros.

România Internațional, 10.05.2016, 13:30

The tennis tournament in Madrid has become a tradition for Romanian tennis players. One of the reasons is that the main sponsor of the competition is Ion Tiriac, a former member of Romania’s Davis Cup team and currently a renowned businessman. Another reason is the prize money. This year, in both the men’s and in the women’s singles, total prizes stood at 912 thousand euros.

In 2016, in the women’s competition, the big winner was Simona Halep. In the final match, Halep defeated Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in two sets, 6-2, 6-4.

For her remarkable performance, we have designated Simona Halep Athlete of the Week on RRI.

This is Simona Halep’s first win in 2016, which brought her 1,000 WTA points, helping her climb in WTA standings, from 7th to 5th place.

Simona Halep was born on September 27, 1991 in Constanta, eastern Romania. She made her professional debut in 2006, when she won her first titles in the ITF circuit. In 2010 she was among the world’s best 100 players. 2013 was a great year for Halep, who won six WTA tournaments. In August 2014, she was ranked 2nd in WTA standings, the highest ranking ever held by a Romanian tennis player. Since then she has ranked constantly among the world’s top 10 players.

(Translated by V. Palcu)