Simona Halep, a two-time Grand Slam singles champion who was ranked world No. 1 in women’s tennis singles for 64 combined weeks, announced her retirement Tuesday.

Halep revealed the news after she fell to Lucia Bronzetti 6-1, 6-1 in a first-round match at the Transylvania Open in Cluj-napoca, Romania, per Howard Fendrich of the Associated Press.

Halep won 24 career singles titles, with her first victory occurring at the Nuremberg Cup in Germany in June 2013. She won six times in 2013 during a breakout year that saw her end the season 11th in the WTA rankings.

Halep’s rise continued in 2014 with her first-ever victory at a WTA 1000 final thanks to a straight-set win over Angelique Kerber at the Qatar Open. The 2014 season also marked her first Grand Slam tournament final, a hard-fought three-set loss to Maria Sharapova in the French Open. Halep went as high as No. 2 in the rankings during the year and finished at No. 3.

Halep won three times apiece on tour over 2015 and 2016, including at Indian Wells in the former year. She didn’t find as much success in the majors, reaching the quarterfinals at the furthest.

However, Halep went back to a major finals in 2017, reaching one in the French Open. She was up by a set and a break over Jeļena Ostapenko but ultimately fell in three sets. Still, Halep had a good year, winning 45 matches and reaching five finals (winning one, versus the Madrid Open for the second straight season. During this year, Halep became the first Romanian woman to ever hold the No. 1 ranking, doing so in this stretch for 16 weeks.

The 2018 season saw her best-ever year at the majors, as she finally broke through in the French Open, taking down Sloane Stephens in three sets after dropping the first. Earlier in the year, Halep fell to Caroline Wozniacki in the Australian Open final, losing her No. 1 ranking to her in the process. Halep would regain it in a month’s time, though, and hold onto it for 48 weeks. Elsewhere, Halep also won the Canadian Open for the second time.

Halep lost her No. 1 ranking after the 2019 Australian Open, which was won by new No. 1 Naomi Osaka. She fell to Serena Williams in the fourth round but got revenge at that year’s Wimbledon, defeating the 23-time career Grand Slam singles winner 6-2, 6-2 for her second-ever major title.

Over the next few years, Halep enjoyed some highlights, including semifinal appearances at the 2020 Australian Open and 2022 Wimbledon, a 2020 Italian Open win and a third career Canadian Open win (2022).

However, Halep began a fight for her professional career after testing positive for Roxadustat, which is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned substances list, at the 2022 U.S. Open.

Fendrich provided more information.

“Halep initially was given a four-year ban that would have expired in 2026. But she appealed, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport reduced the penalty to nine months in March 2024.

“She argued that she was exposed to a contaminated supplement that caused her failed test. CAS determined that Halep bore ‘some level of fault or negligence’ for not exercising ‘sufficient care’ while using the supplement, but ‘she bore no significant fault or negligence.’ So that is why, CAS said, ‘her anti-doping rule violations were not intentional.'”

Per Reuters, Halep “said she used Schinoussa supplements during the 2022 Flushing Meadows tournament and that the Keto MCT she took had been contaminated with Roxadustat, which was not disclosed on the label.”

Halep only played a few times after her official return, losing once in March 2024 to Paula Bedosa at the Miami Open and again in October at the Hong Kong Tennis Open to Yuan Yue.

Knee and shoulder pain that occurred during an Abu Dhabi exhibition event forced her to withdraw from the 2025 Australian Open.

And now she has officially retired. Halep was a tremendous player, and like many greats, her time in the sport has been cut short due to physical issues. Still, her impact on the game will never go unnoticed, especially in her home country of Romania, where she’ll forever be a legend for her efforts.