Simona Halep (Romanian pronunciation: ; born 27 September 1991) is a Romanian professional tennis player. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles twice between 2017 and 2019. She reached the No. 1 ranking for the first time on 9 October 2017. On her second occasion, she held the ranking for 48 consecutive weeks. In total, she has been No. 1 for 64 weeks, which ranks tenth in the history of women's tennis. Halep was the year-end No. 1 in 2017 and 2018. She has won 19 WTA singles titles. Halep has also finished runner-up 17 times. Halep has won two Grand Slam singles titles: the 2018 French Open, and the 2019 Wimbledon Championships.
Halep first broke into the world's top 50 at the end of 2012, reached the top 20 in August 2013, and finally the top 10 in January 2014. She won her first six WTA titles in the same calendar year in 2013 (a feat that was last achieved by Steffi Graf in 1986 when she won her first 7), being named the WTA's Most Improved Player at its end, as well as being named ESPN Center Court's 2013 Most Improved Player. Halep won her first major tournament at the 2018 French Open, and went on to win the Wimbledon Championships in 2019. She had previously reached the finals of the 2014 French Open, 2017 French Open and 2018 Australian Open finals. She also reached the final of the 2014 WTA Finals, losing to Serena Williams in straight sets after having defeated her earlier in the tournament 6-0 6-2 (which to that point was Serena's worst defeat in her career).
Halep was the most clicked player on WTATennis.com for two consecutive years (2014–2015), when she was awarded the WTA Most Popular Player of the Year prize. After the 2017 Wimbledon Championships, Simona Halep became the active player with the most consecutive weeks within the Top 10. Halep has also won WTA's Fan Favorite Singles Player in 2017 and 2018, and WTA's Player of the Year in 2018. In December 2018, Halep was chosen by ESPN most dominant tennis player of the year and ranked ninth in The Dominant 20 top of the most dominant 20 athletes in the world. She notched a 46–8 record. She was given the award of Cetățean de onoare ("Honorary Citizen") of the city of Bucharest in 2018. Halep is the third Romanian female tennis player, after Virginia Ruzici and Irina Spîrlea, to have ever entered the Top 10 WTA ranking (Magda Rurac was also ranked in the top 10 in unofficial world rankings in 1948 and 1949, before the existence of WTA rankings). She is also the first Romanian tennis player to ever win a Wimbledon singles title.
WTA No.1 Ranking 2019 WTA Tour Womens | Wimbledon Women 2019 WTA Tour Womens | WTA No.1 Ranking 2018 ATP Womens | French Open Women 2018 WTA Tour Womens |
WTA No.1 Ranking 2017 ATP Womens |
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