Former World Number One Simona Halep Announces Retirement
Former world number one and two-time Grand Slam winner Simona Halep announced her retirement from professional tennis on Tuesday after losing in the first round at her home event in Cluj.
Halep, whose career stalled due to a doping ban that was reduced on appeal last year, lost 6-1 6-1 to Italy's Lucia Bronzetti in her first match in 2025 before announcing her decision.
The 33-year-old Romanian had delayed the start of her season due to pain in her knee and shoulder.
"I don't know if it's with sadness or joy, I think I feel both, but I make this decision with my soul at peace, I have always been realistic with myself," Halep told the crowd at the BT Arena, Reuters reported.
"My body cannot take as much so as to get back where I once was, it is very difficult to get there and I know what it means to get there. That is why I wanted to come to Cluj today to play before you and to say goodbye on the tennis court.
"Who knows whether I will return but at the moment it is for the last time that I play here. I don't want to cry, it is a beautiful thing, I became world number one, I won Grand Slams, it is everything I ever wanted. Life moves on, there is life after tennis too."
Halep lost in three Grand Slam finals before finally clinching her first major at the French Open in 2018 and went on to win Wimbledon the following year.
She was provisionally suspended in October 2022 after she tested positive for roxadustat - a banned drug that stimulates the production of red blood cells - at the US Open that year.
She was later banned for four years, a period which was cut to nine months last March following an appeal at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
"Being away from the court in this period, I realised how hard the last 15 years were, working every day, no matter how you feel, you must push yourself to the max," Halep, who won 24 WTA titles, later told a press conference.
"Perhaps life also means something else. I understood that in this period, and I want to enjoy what I am living now. I have done a lot in tennis. I am at peace, content with what I did, and I feel the time has come to look in another direction."
Halep, who played only four tournaments over the last year, denied knowingly taking roxadustat, blaming contaminated supplements for her positive test.
"I am at peace. I know I didn't do anything wrong in tennis and I am clean, so, I wasn't mentally affected at all, but it did take me out of commission," she added when asked if the ban contributed to her short return to action.
"Maybe it was intended or maybe that's just how the system was, but I am here, and I am emotionally well, which matters the most."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Asharq Al-Awsat
5 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Zverev Overcomes Moutet to Reach Stuttgart Quarters
German top seed Alexander Zverev beat Frenchman Corentin Moutet 6-2 7-6(7) on Thursday to reach the Stuttgart Open quarter-finals, staying on course in his Wimbledon tune-up after a quarter-final run at Roland Garros. Zverev has long struggled on grass. The 28-year-old has won 24 tour-level titles but none on grass and has never gone past the fourth round at Wimbledon. Zverev, a three-times Grand Slam finalist, raced through the first set, but Moutet responded well in the second, taking an early 2-1 lead, Reuters reported. The set tightened as both players traded breaks to reach 4-4, before Zverev held his nerve in the tiebreak to close out the match. "I prefer to win 6-2 6-2, but you can never choose these kind of things but in the end I won and that's the most important thing," said Zverev, who last played at Stuttgart in 2019. "I think the first match on grass was never easy. I honestly think it was a very average match. I made it complicated, but a win is a win and I'm happy to play tomorrow again." Fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime earned his first win on grass since Halle in 2022, defeating Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 6-4 6-4 to move into the quarter-finals in Stuttgart. The 24-year-old Canadian will next face German teenager Justin Engel. Wildcard Engel, who won his first tour-level grasscourt match in the previous round, stunned American seventh seed Alex Michelsen 6-4 6-4, breaking for 2-1 in both sets and holding serve throughout without facing a single break point. The 17-year-old Engel becomes the youngest Stuttgart quarter-finalist and also the youngest player to reach the quarter-finals of an ATP grasscourt event since 1985, when Boris Becker made it to the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
Asharq Al-Awsat
5 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Wimbledon Announces Record $73M Prize Fund, $4M for Singles Champions
Wimbledon's prize money has risen to a record 53.5 million pounds (about $73 million) and the singles champions will each earn three million pounds ($4 million), All England Club officials announced on Thursday. The total amount is 3.5 million pounds ($6.8 million) more than last year, an increase of 7% — and exactly twice the pot handed out to competitors at the grass-court Grand Slam 10 years ago. 'We're immensely proud of the fact that if you look back 10 years, you can see the increase over that period and 7% this year,' All England chair Deborah Jevans said. 'And we have listened to the players, we have engaged with the players.' The 2025 winners' checks represent an 11.1% jump on last year's prizes for the men's and women's singles champions and comes amid growing player demands for a bigger share of grand slam profits. Players who lose in the first round of singles will get 66,000 pounds, up 10% year on year, The Associated Press reported. 'The focus on just the prize money at four events, the Grand Slams, does not get to the heart of what the challenge is for tennis,' Jevans added. 'The challenge with tennis is the fact that the players don't have an offseason which they want, they have increasing injuries that they're speaking about, and we've always said that we as Wimbledon are willing to engage and talk with the tours to try and find solutions, and that door remains open.' Wimbledon starts on June 30 and runs until July 13. For the first time in the oldest Grand Slam, line judges will be replaced with electronic line-calling.
Arab News
10 hours ago
- Arab News
Wimbledon singles champions to receive record $4 million in prize money
Wimbledon has increased its prize money for this year's championships to $72.59 million (£53.5 million), a 7 percent increase on 2024 and double what they offered a decade ago, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) said on singles champions will receive £3 million ($4.07 million) each, the highest across all Grand Slams and a 11.1 percent increase on the prize money Carlos Alcaraz and Barbora Krejcikova took home last players who exit the first round will receive 66,000 pounds, a 10 percent increase on last year. Doubles prize money has also increased by 4.4 percent, mixed doubles by 4.3 percent and the wheelchair and quad wheelchair events by 5.6 increase also comes after the world's top players called for significant improvements in prize money at the four Grand Slams as a way to ensure a more equitable distribution of revenue.'We have listened to the players, we have engaged with the players,' AELTC chair Deborah Jevans said.'But the focus on just the prize money at the four events, the Grand Slams, does not get to the heart of what the challenge is with tennis.'The challenge with tennis is the fact that the players don't have an off-season which they want, they have increasing injuries that they're speaking about.'Jevans added that Wimbledon is willing to engage and talk with the tours to try and find solutions but there has not been any proposal as to how the tour is able to change its at 4 AELTC also said the doubles finals on the weekend would start at 1 p.m. local time and the singles finals at 4 a change could potentially change playing conditions — like having the roof closed and the lights switched on — if the match runs long and well into the French Open final this month where Alcaraz beat Jannik Sinner lasted five hours and 29 minutes, but AELTC chief executive Sally Bolton said the change in timing would ensure an 'improved experience' for all.'Whether that's the doubles finalists having greater certainty over their schedule, whether it's the fans having the opportunity to experience a day which builds to the crescendo of the singles finals or ensuring that we have our champions crowned in front of the widest possible audience,' she line judgesThis year's championships also marks a break with an age old tradition where line judges will be replaced for the first time with the electronic line calling system that is in place at tournaments said 'the time is right to move on,' adding that many line judges would return in different roles as match assistants, with two assigned per court.'They're extra eyes and ears, the assistant to the chair umpire... We've got about 80 of those across the Championships.'They'll also provide one of the parts of our resilience in the event that the electronic line calling system goes down at any point in time.'
