Former world No. 1 Simona Halep announces retirement

CLUJ – Simona Halep, a former world No. 1 and two-time Grand Slam winner, said she is “at peace” as she announced her retirement from tennis on Feb 4, after losing in the first round at her home event, the Transylvania Open in Cluj.

The Romanian, whose career stalled due to a doping ban that was reduced on appeal in 2024, lost 6-1, 6-1 to Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti in her first match in 2025 before announcing her decision.

The 33-year-old 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 BTarena.

“My body cannot take as much 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 No. 1, 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 in March 2024 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, and I feel the time has come to look in another direction.”

Halep, who played in only four tournaments in 2024, denied knowingly taking roxadustat, blaming contaminated supplements for her positive test.

“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. “But I am here, and I am emotionally well, which matters the most.”

Elsewhere, Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz battled through against local hero Botic van de Zandschulp at the Rotterdam Open on Feb 4, his first match since his quarter-final heartbreak at the Australian Open.

The top seed and world No. 3 had to dig deep to overcome the wild card ranked 81 places below him, eventually coming through the first-round clash 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-1 in nearly three hours. REUTERS, AFP