Simona Halep recently opened up about contemplating retirement. Her struggles with a knee injury pose a huge impediment to her playing high-quality tennis, and the Romanian also discussed the possibility of her knee never returning to 100%.

During a press conference ahead of the 2025 Transylvania Open, Simon Halep delved into how her knee injury was affecting her psyche and not letting her play her best. She missed the 2025 Australian Open due to the aforementioned injury and shoulder pain.

“The knee injury I have is quite serious and difficult to recover from. I don’t know if I’m afraid to push myself, but when I feel pain, it’s hard to play at my highest level. It’s very difficult to get back to where I was, especially after such a long break,” Simona Halep said. (Via tikitaka.ro, translated from Romanian).

The 33-year-old admitted that she was considering retirement as she found recovering from injuries hard at her age. She was last seen in action at the 2024 Hong Kon Tennis Open, where Yue Yuan eliminated her in the opening round.

“The thought of retiring crosses my mind very often. I’ve reached an age where I have injuries that are hard to recover from. My knee won’t heal completely—I was advised to undergo surgery, but it’s a complicated procedure, and I don’t think I will go through with it. We’ll see what happens next. Life moves forward, and I’ll take things as they come.”

Halep has enjoyed an illustrious career and feels it may be time to explore other things.

“Tennis is not everything in life” – Simona Halep on exploring her life outside tennis

Continuing her thoughts, Simona Halep expressed gratitude for the illustrious career she enjoyed and was fulfilled with it. She now felt it was time to explore things outside tennis as well.

“Tennis is not everything in life. I have many desires and goals beyond the sport. Everything I have done has been extraordinary… I may not have even dreamed of becoming World No. 1 and winning two Grand Slam titles. I worked hard for it, and I feel fulfilled as a tennis player. Now, I want to do something else, not just tennis. The first part of my life was all about tennis; now, I want to explore other things.”

Apart from her injury struggles, there was a huge incident that marred the Romanian’s career with controversies.

Halep’s world came crashing down when she tested positive for a banned substance Roxadustat during the 2022 US Open, following which she was handed a two-year ban, which was later extended to four years. However, she successfully appealed the verdict to CAS (Court of Arbitration for Sport) to get her ban reduced to nine months. She made her return at the 2024 Miami Open.

Simona Halep is currently gearing up to play in front of her home crowd at the 2025 Transylvania Open in Cluj-Napoca. She will face Lucia Bronzetti in the opening round on Monday, February 3.