30 Astonishing Facts Every Fan Should Know About Simona Halep

15 February 2019, 7:58 am EST By Ruby Karnick

Simona Halep, the year-end No. 1 in 2017 and 2018, was chosen by ESPN as the most dominant tennis player of the year in December 2018. Here are some very interesting facts about the Romanian professional tennis player:

She was Women’s Tennis Association ranked # 1 in singles on two separate occasions between 2017 and 2019, for a total of 64 weeks.
Halep was born on September 27, 1991, in Constanta, Romania to Tania and Stere Halep of Aromanian descent. She has an older brother, Nicolae.
She took to tennis at the age of 4 ½, when she accompanied her mother to her brother’s tennis club and liked the ball bouncing of the racket. Though she was playing football with her neighborhood friends and handball at school, she was conquered by tennis.
Ioan Stan, a tennis coach in Constanta, guided Halep through her career and the owner of main tennis club in the city, Coneleu Idu, provided crucial sponsorship when she was a teenager.
Her family made sacrifices to get her the best coaches and with her ambition she won her first trophy, the ‘Seaside Cup.’ As a 13 year old, she was offered a wild card for an important junior tournament at Sainte Genevieve des Boix, where she got through the qualifier and reached the semifinals.
She idolized Justin Henin and Andrei Pavel of Romania apart from Gheoghe Hagi, the greatest Romanian footballer of all time. Halep’s first love was football with keepy-uppie record of 89.
Halep started the 2008 season with a place in the finals of ‘Notinghill,’ semi-finals of ‘Australian Open’ and won the Trofeo Bonfiglio tournament in the junior circuit. Later she went on to play six senior development ‘ITF’ tournaments, winning two Bucharest tournaments in April-May.
As the ninth seed at Roland Garros Junior Championship, she defeated Jessica Moore, Ksenia Lykina, Arantxa Rus, en-route to the finals. In the finals she overcame her compatriot Elena Bogdan 6-4, 6-7, 6-2 to lift the trophy.
On April 27, 2009, she reached the finals of Makarska, W60 Tournament , where she lost to the top seed Tatjana Maria, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 and in August that year she won the $ 25,000 tournament in Maribor. She also reached the semi-finals of $50,000 tournament in Minsk, Belarus, and the $25,000 tournament in Opole, Poland, in November.
In 2009, in her 17th year, Halep underwent breast reduction surgery to go from 34DD to 34C, to improve her reaction time. According to her that was her single biggest sacrifice for tennis.

In April 2010, with the world ranking of 166, she qualified for the ‘2010 Andalucia Tennis Experience’ in Marbella, Spain and performed creditably. She defeated world # 70, Iveta Benesova and #36 Sorana Cirstea, en-route to quarterfinals where she was subdued by Flavia Pennetta.
Halep reached her first finals of WTA Tour tournament on April 2010, when as a qualifier she reached the finals defeating Lucie Hradecka, Olga Savchuk, Patty Schnyder and Renata Voracova, on the way. However she lost the finals to Iveta Benesova of Czech.
She managed to qualify for the main draw of both French Open and United States Open in 2010 for the first time, but was eliminated in the first round of both the tournament.
For the first time she defeated a top-10 ranked player in her career, when she overcame Li Na of China, ranked No. 6 in the first round of 2011 U.S Open. Earlier in the year at the Roger Cup in Toronto, she had defeated, world 15th ranked Svetlanta Kuznetsova of Russia, also for her first victory over top-20 ranked player.
In May 2013, ranked career high 47, Halep had a great tournament at Internazionali BNL d’Italia, where she had victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova, Agnieszka Radwanska, and Jelena Jankovic, before going down to Serena Williams.
In June 2013, she became the first Romanian player to win back-to-back tournaments on different surfaces, when she won the ‘Nuremberg Cup in Germany, on clay and then the Rosmalen Championhips in Netherland, on grass this time.
In November 2013, she recorded her sixth win of the season when she beat Samantha Stosur of Australia, 2-6, 6-2, and 6-2 in the finals of WTA Tournaments of Champions in Bulgaria. As a result, Halep became the only player to win titles on clay, grass, hard and indoor courts.
On November 21, 2013, she was awarded the ‘WTA’s Most Improved Player of the Year for 2013.’ She was also named ‘ESPN Center Court’s 2013 Most Improved Player.’ She was the second most successful player behind Serena Williams in terms of titles.
On February 16, 2014, when she defeated Angelique Kerber of Germany, 6-2, 6-3, in the ‘Qatar Open, to register her first Premier 5 tournament, she described it as ‘one of the best moments of my life.’
She entered the 2014 French Open, as the number 4 seed and reached her first Grand Slam finals without losing a set, before losing to Maria Sharapova, in the finals by 4-6, 7-6 and 4-6. She had also lost earlier in the year to Sharapova in the Mutua Madrid Open finals.

In October 2014, she reached the finals of ‘2014 WTA Finals’ only to lose to Serena Williams in straight sets. Earlier in the round robin league of the tournament, she stunned two-time defending champion, 6-0, 6-2, to become the first player in sixteen years to inflict such a worst defeat.
In March 2014, she registered her biggest career title, when she won the ‘2015 BNP Paribas Open’ defeating Jelena Jankovic, 2-6, 7-5, and 6-4. The win took her to the fore-front of year end qualifying for the WTA Finals at Singapore.
She has an estimated net worth of around $ 14 million and her reported annual salary is $2 million with endorsement from Nike, Vodafone, Hublot, Lacoste and Mercedes Benz.
Halep recorded her best performance to date at the ‘2015 United States Open,’ when she reached the semi-finals, where she lost to eventual winner Flavia Pennetta, of Italy, 1-6, 3-6. She ended the year retaining her No.2 ranking with a win-loss record of 40-10.
The 2016 season started with number of injury issues. To start with an Achilles injury prevented her from participating in the Brisbane International and later she suffered from nasal problem resulting in first round exit from the Australian Open, where she was seeded second.
On October 2017, Halep was crowned world ranking No.1 for the first time in her career. She became the seventh player to reach the No.1 ranking without having won a Grand Slam tournament.
Unlike in the two previous years, she started on a winning note at the 2018 Australian Open and reached the finals where she lost to Caroline Wozniacki in three sets. In the third set of third round match against Lauren Davis, she was stretched to 15-13, with the match lasting 3:45 hours to equal the Australian Open record for most games played.
Halep fought back from set break down to end her Grand Slam drought in Paris in 2018. She defeated Sloane Stephens in the finals to secure her first major title and in the process became the first Romanian to win major in 40 years.
Her team consists of her coach Darren Cahill since January 2016, fitness trainer Teo Cercel, physio Andrei Cristofor and manager Virginia Ruzici. She said of them ‘I have people around me who are friends and feel like they are there forever.’
Halep described her playing style as being ‘an aggressive baseliner’ modeled on Justine Henin. The columnist Louisa Thomas of Grantland, wrote she is astonishing fast with surprising power and uncanny anticipation, who does not play to a set pattern.