Athlete of the Week on RRI – Tennis player Simona Halep

She made it all the way to the Cincinnati tournament's final, where she faced Serena Williams of the United States.

România Internațional, 25.08.2015, 12:05

The Flushing Meadows Grand Slam tournament is due to kick off. Meanwhile, also in the United States, the Cincinnati tournament came to a close last week. The mens competition had 3.8 million dollars in prize money, while the womens event offered 2,4 million dollars in prize money.

Romanian tennis player Simona Halep was seeded second in the competition. She made it all the way to the events final, where she faced Serena Williams of the United States. For her achievement, we have designated Simona Halep Athlete of the Week on RRI for the second week in a row, after last week we rewarded her good run in the Toronto tournament.

At Cincinnati, first Simona knocked out Kristina Mladenovic of France, a player whom she had never defeated before. She then moved to play Andreea Petkovic of Germany, whom she defeated 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. In the quarterfinals, Simona eased past Anastasia Pavliucenkova 7-6, 6-2, while in the semi-finals she won against Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, 6-1, 6-2. In the finals, Serena Williams won 6-3, 7-6.

Her performance in this tournament has earned Halep 585 WTA points and a 240-thousand-dollar check. With this win Simona Halep has climbed one position in the WTA hierarchy, now ranking 2nd. The series of uninterrupted games however has wore down the Romanian player, who decided to withdraw from the New Haven tournament, totaling 689 thousand dollars up for grabs. The tournament, where Halep was seeded first, kicked off on Sunday.