Simona Halep the world’s number one tennis player

For the first time in the history of womens tennis in Romania, a player from this country has made it to the worlds tennis elite

Mihai Pelin, 09.10.2017, 12:49

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep has made it to the first position in the ranking of the WTA professional tennis players after the finals of the Beijing tournament, a game, which she lost to French Caroline Garcia. Halep has secured a memorable victory against Maria Sharapova of Russia in the round of 16 and got a spectacular win in the semis against Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia. Halep has replaced Garbine Muguruza to become the 25th player to step onto the highest step of the womens tennis hierarchy in the WTAs 44-year history.

Simona has this season failed to become the worlds number one three times: at the Roland Garros, a finals which she dramatically lost to Jelena Ostapenko, in the Wimbledons quarters against Johanna Konta and in the Cincinnati finals against Muguruza. Halep is the second Romanian tennis player to have made it to the best position in world, after Ilie Nastase, who held the first ATP position for 40 weeks, between August 23, 1973 and June 2, 1974.

Born in Constanta, on the Romanian Black Sea Coast, Halep took up tennis at the age of 4, under the guidance of her brother Nicu, who was her first coach. Two years later, aged 6, she was training on a daily basis and won tournament after tournament. Four months before turning 18, Halep had won the Rolland Garros tournament for under twenty-one players to make it to the worlds highest position for junior players. Halep later moved to Bucharest to benefit from the best training conditions and the doctors recommended breast surgery to avoid injuries. At the end of 2012 she joined the worlds best 50 athletes, and the summer of 2013 found Simona among the best 20 athletes in the world.

She broke the top ten barrier in January 2014 after a Grand Slam finals in the Australian Open. Halep thus became the first Romanian to end a competition season among the worlds three best players, after Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. She continued the series of victories and has made nearly 20 million dollars from tennis competitions alone. She has played 12 finals and won 15 WTA tournaments, including the one in Indian Wells and Madrid. She and her fans hope that the next performance will be a Grand Slam title, a performance she was very close to in the two Roland Garros finals.