Simona Halep

Halep’s journey as a junior player started in 2005 when she was only 13 years old. She first began competing in the ITF Junior Circuit and that very year, finished runner up at Mamaia-Sen Junior ITF Tournament in her home country of Romania. Halep also represented her country at the Junior Fed Cup alongside Irina-Camelia Begu and Andreea Mitu. She only won one Grade 1 junior title and that came in 2007 at the Perin Memorial in Umag. She did win one Grand Slam junior title towards the end of her junior career at Roland Garros. It was a historic result as Halep became only the second Romanian to win the girls’ singles title at after Mariana Simionescu in 1974.

2013 was the year that saw Simona Halep commence her climb to the top of the mountain of women’s tennis. She won a whopping six WTA singles titles that year, including the Rosmalen Grass Court Championships and the Kremlin Cup. Her outstanding performance that season saw her being named the WTA Most Improved Player of the Year as she found herself in 11th in the world rankings. Halep became the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1986 to win six WTA titles in a single season. The following year, she reached the first Grand Slam semi-final at Roland Garros and after winning two WTA titles, rose to second in the world rankings.

Although she had taken the mantle of world no. 1 in 2017, Halep was yet to win a Grand Slam. That dream became a reality in 2018 when she beat Sloane Stephens from a set down in the final of Roland Garros. Leading up to the tournament, she had not won any major competitions on clay, her best result being a runners-up place at the Italian Open. The Romanian would add another Grand Slam trophy to her cabinet a year later as she defeated the legendary Serena Williams in the final of the Wimbledon Championships. Halep was an underdog going into the match but her dominating victory put any doubts about her skills to rest and she became the first ever Romanian to win a singles title at The Championships.