The Athlete of the Year 2017: Tennis player Simona Halep

For her notable performance in 2017, Radio Romania International has designated Simona Halep Athlete of the Year 2017

Florin Orban, 04.01.2018, 12:52

The year 2017 saw a premiere for Romanian tennis. For the first time ever, a Romanian woman tennis player stepped onto the first step of the podium according to the world rankings. Her name is Simona Halep, the best woman tennis player Romanian has ever had. For her notable performance Radio Romania has designated Simona Halep Athlete of the Year 2017.

Simona Halep was born on September 27, 1991 in Constanta, southern Romania. Halep made her debut as a pro with her first ITF circuit matches. In 2010, Simona Halep earned a position in the world top 100 players. She amazingly shot to fame in 2013, when she won six WTA tournaments. In August 2014, Simona Halep for the first time ever in her career earned the 2nd-place according to the WTA rankings, at that time the highest possible position for a Romanian athlete. Since then, Simona Halep has maintained her place among the world’s top 10 tennis players in the women’s singles rankings.

2017 did not provide an auspicious start for Simona Halep. She only regained her top shape in April, when she reached the semifinals of the tournament in Stuttgart. Simona braced up and won the following tournament, the one in Madrid in the Premier Mandatory category, where in the final she overpowered France’s Kristina Mladenovic, 7-5, 6-7, 6-2. Her win back then earned Simona Halep 1,200, 000 USD. Then in the final of the Rome tournament, Halep lost to Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. In the quarterfinals of the Roland Garros tournament, Halep took her revenge over Svitolina, defeating her also in three sets, with a crushing 6-nil win in the decisive set. Halep reached the final of the French Open but she sustained a defeat by Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko. Simona had the upper hand in the first set, winning it 6-4, and even had a 3-nil advantage in the second set. However, Ostapenko came from behind and eventually grabbed a 6-3 win. Halep thus wasted the opportunity to win her first Grand Slam tournament, as well as the opportunity to step onto the first step of the podium according to the world rankings.

In Cincinnati, Ohio, in August 2017, Simona Halep yet again missed the chance to become the world’s number one player. Halep managed to reach the final in Cincinatti, where she was defeated by Spaniard challenger Garbine Muguruzza, 6-1, 6-nil.

However, in October 2017, Simona Halep was unstoppable in her fight for the top position in the WTA rankings. The momentum of Simona Halep’s blazing trail was the Beijing tournament, where she made it to the final. In fact, two matches provided a crucial contribution to Simona Halep’s scintillating run in 2017. First came her round-of-16 win in the game against Russi’as Maria Sharapova, 6-2, 6-2. It was Halep’s first ever win against her Russian challenger, in the wake of seven defeats in a row. What mattered a lot was the semifinal fixture against Jelena Ostapenko, a match she won 6-2, 6-4, actually a revenge for Halep’s defeat by Ostapenko in the Roland Garros tournament in the summer. However, in the Beijing tournament Halep sustained a 4-6, 6-7 defeat by French challenger Caroline Garcia, but that mattered little for Simona Halep’s claiming the top position in WTA standings.

Under the circumstances, Simona Halep was favorite to winning the 2017 WTA Finals, the women’s tennis tournament held in Singapore, the last major competition of the professional schedule. Halep had a good early start in the group stage, with a two-set win against French opponent Caroline Garcia, 6-4, 6-2. Yet Halep sustained two defeats, by Danish opponent Caroline Wozniacki, nil-6, and 2-6, and by Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina, 3-6, 4-6, so Simona Halep failed to make it to the semi-finals in Singapore.