Simona Halep

Simona Halep

Country (sports)	Romania
Residence	Constanţa, Romania
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in)
Plays	Right Handed; Double Handed Backhand
Prize money	US$ 78,646
Singles
Career record	91 - 34
Career titles	0 (6 ITF titles)
Highest ranking	No. 110 (May 3, 2010)
Current ranking	No. 114 (May 17, 2010)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian Open	Q1 (2010)
French Open	1R (2010)
French Open Junior	W (2008)
Doubles
Career record	31–15
Career titles	0 (4 ITF titles)
Highest ranking	234 (June 22, 2009)
Grand Slam doubles results
Australian Open	0
French Open	0
Wimbledon	0
US Open	0
Other doubles tournaments
Tour Finals	0
Last updated on: May 3, 2010.

Simona Halep (born September 27, 1991 in Constanţa, Romania) is a tennis player playing on the ITF Women's Circuit. She is well known among tennis fans for her aggressive style of play.

Career

Halep started playing tennis at age four, in emulation of her older brother. She has self-described her playing style as being a "an aggressive baseliner."

2008

Halep with the Roland Garros Junior Championship trophy in 2008

She started the year with a final in Nottinghill, losing to Arantxa Rus, then defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open Junior Championships, before losing in the semifinal to Jessica Moore.

At the ITF $50,000 tournament in Bucharest, Halep eliminated former Roland Garros semi-finalist Sesil Karatantcheva in the 1st round, before losing in the quarterfinals to Sorana Cîrstea in 3 sets, 6–3, 3–6, 1–6.

She won a pair of junior events in May. First, she won the ITF $10,000 tournament in Bucharest against Stephanie Vongsouthi by a score of 7-6(4), 6-3. That was followed by a victory in the finals at Trofeo Bonfiglio, winning over Bojana Jovanovski by a score of 6–4, 6–1.

At the Roland Garros Junior Championships, she was entered in the main draw as the 9th seed. In the first round, she defeated Charlotte Rodier, 6–4, 6–1, and then Karen Barbat from Denmark, 6–3, 6–1. In the 3rd round, Halep won against 5th seed Jessica Moore, 6–0, 6–1. In the quarterfinals, Simona beat 13th seed Ksenia Lykina, 6–1, 6–2. In the semifinals, Halep defeated second seed Arantxa Rus 6–3, 7–5, and then won the all–Romanian final, 6–4, 6–7(3), 6–2 against 10th seed Elena Bogdan.

2009

At the $50,000 tournament in Makarska, Halep began her campaign with wins over Ana Vrljic of Croatia and an upset victory over Ksenia Pervak. She defeated Anne Schaefer, 6–0, 6–0, and beat second seeded Arantxa Rus with a 6–4, 7–6(6) win to advance to the final. However, Halep fell to the top seed Tatjana Malek by a score of 6–1, 4–6, 6-4.

In May, she reached the quarterfinals at the Bucharest ITF $100,000 tournament, losing to German Andrea Petkovic 6-2, 7-6(2). Later that month, she made her first attempt to qualify for a senior Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros. She defeated 17th seed Michaëlla Krajicek, 6–4, 7–5 in her first match, but fell to Vitalia Diatchenko, 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 in the following round.

In August, Halep won the $25,000 tournament in Maribor, defeating top seed Katalin Marosi of Hungary in the final 6-4, 6-2.

2010

In January she entered the Australian Open, but lost to Stéphanie Foretz of France 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the first round of qualifying.

She was as of April 5, 2010 ranked 166th in the world. .

Her breakthrough on the WTA tour occurred during the 2010 Andalucia Tennis Experience on the clay courts of Marbella, Spain. As a qualifier, she advanced to the quarterfinals with wins over world #70 Iveta Benešová and world #36 Sorana Cîrstea. She'She then put up a fight against world No.16 Flavia Pennetta, but was finally beaten by the No. 2 seed 6-4, 7-6(4).

Halep then qualified for the 2010 Barcelona Ladies Open by winning 3 matches, but was defeated in the first round of the main draw by Carla Suarez Navarro 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.

Halep's impressive form continued into the 2010 Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem in Fes. Seeded first in the qualifying round, she successfully qualified by defeating Nathalie Vierin 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 and Estrella Cabeza Candela 6-1, 6-1. In the first round she defeated No. 8 seed Lucie Hradecká 7-5, 6-1. In the second round she feated Olga Savchuk 6-3, 6-1 before causing a big upset in the quarter-finals where she defeated No. 2 seed and former top 10 player Patty Schnyder 6-2, 7-6(3). In the semi-final she defeated Renata Voráčová 7-5, 6-4 to advance to her first WTA Tour Tournament final. But she lost to Voráčová's Czech compatriot Iveta Benešová 4-6, 2-6 in final.

In a bid to boost her game, Halep underwent breast reduction surgery in the summer of 2009, which took her cup size down to 34C.

In May 2010 Halep qualified for the French Open, defeating Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 in the final round of qualifying. She was defeated 7-5, 6-1 in the first round by seventh seed Samantha Stosur.

Career finals

WTA singles (1)

Legend
Grand Slam (0)
WTA Championships (0)
Premier Mandatory (0)
Premier 5 (0)
Premier (0)
International (1)

Runners-up (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
1.	1 May 2010	Fes	Clay	Iveta Benešová	6–4, 6–2

Singles performance timeline

Tournament	2008	2009	2010	Career Win-Loss
Grand Slam Tournaments
Australian Open	A	A	Q1	0–0
French Open	A	Q2	1R	0–1
Wimbledon	A	A		0–0
US Open	A	A		0–0
Win-Loss	0–0	0–0	0–1	0–1

See also

• List of Grand Slam Girls' Singles champions
• List of French Open champions
• List of Romanians

External links

• Simona Halep at the Women's Tennis Association