Simona Halep Announces Shock Retirement From Tennis

Former world No.1 and two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep has announced her retirement from professional tennis following a first-round defeat at the 2025 Transylvania Open tournament in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. There were no prior announcements from Halep regarding her retirement so this comes as shocking news.

Halep’s comeback after her doping ban has been a complete disaster and she did not win a single main draw match in that period.  The Romanian player tried to get some match wins at the ITF level but her performance was insufficient. Her level was not improving so in that sense, this announcement does not come as a surprise. The doping scandal will always be a black mark in her career and the long suspension probably wrecked her career. However, the defining moment would still be her two Slams which she won before the trials.

A Hall of Fame Career

Simona Halep won the 2018 French Open and 2019 Wimbledon and held the No.1 ranking in singles for a total of 64 weeks, including being year-end No.1 in 2017 and 2018. Halep ended her tennis career with 24 WTA titles, 9 of which were Masters 1000. She earned prize money of over $40.2 million dollars, which ranks as 3rd in all-time prize money rankings in women’s tennis. Halep was a brilliant player on every surface but achieved the most success on clay.

Halep was one of the most consistent and competitive players on the tour and her longevity inside the top 10 was insane. She was ranked in the Top 5 at the year-end for seven years in a row from 2014 to 2020. She had an incredible career and brought so much to Romanian tennis. But it’s a shame that things ended this way.

On the bright side, she concluded her career on her home soil, in front of her adoring fans. After all the things she’s been through lately: The divorce, the doping scandal, tennis results, and her knee injuries have been a lot in these last couple of years. Hopefully, she’ll be able to find happiness in retirement.