No regrets: Simona Halep reflects on sad end to glittering tennis career

The Romanian announced her retirement in February 2025 after failing to stay healthy and gain consistency on the tour.

Halep's final match came via a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Lucia Bronzetti at the Transylvania Open, coming weeks after withdrawing from the Australian Open due to a knee injury.

"I thought about it for a while, but it was not decided when I entered the court that in that match I would retire. But I felt like my place is not there anymore," said Halep to The National.

"I felt physically, I was injured with my knee and I was in pain. So after I lost the first set, I made up my mind and I said, â˜I'm going to stop after this'.

"And then I went to my parents and I told them that I want to stop. And they said, â˜OK, announce it'. So the story was like this. Nobody knew.

"No, never. Probably that means that, inside myself, it was the right decision. And now I feel it. I think it was the best thing."

Halep enjoyed a stellar career, winning the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019, as well as finishing as the year-end No. 1 on two occasions (2017 and 2018).

Overall, the Romanian held the top spot for 64 weeks and remained in the world's top 10 for eight years - one of the longest such streaks in WTA history.

The two-time Grand Slam champion also won titles at the Indian Wells, Madrid, and Rome events.

However, in August 2022, she tested positive for the presence of roxadustat, a banned substance.

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) also noted â˜irregularities'  in her Athlete Biological Passport (ABP), which inferred some level of blood manipulation over an extended period.

In September 2023, she was handed a four-year ban, with Halep appealing to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The court partially upheld the appeal after finding that the substance likely entered her system via the consumption of a contaminated substance, supporting the former world No. 1's original explanation.

As a result, the four-year ban was reduced to nine months, making her immediately eligible to return to professional tennis.

"Tennis did nothing to me, nothing wrong. It did only good things," Halep maintained later in the interview.

"What happened, it was just, for me, without doing any mistakes. So everything was proved. Tennis has nothing to do with that and I still keep the passion for it.

"I miss [tennis] a little bit and I had goosebumps when I entered the centre court, remembering everything that I was playing.

"But it's good also without the stress of playing matches.

"Less stomach pain before the matches because they killed me.

"And being so emotional affected me on court as well, but it's part of me and I had to accept it."

Halep then returned to the tour at the 2024 Miami Open, losing her first match in 18 months 6-1, 6-4 to Paula Badosa.

She would play just one additional WTA-level - the Hong Kong Open - before her final event at the Transylvania Open.

"I have no regrets and every mistake I did, I assume it and I accept it. And all the good things that I did, I'm proud of," she reflected.

"I can say I'm proud of many things, but the main thing is the way I managed all the failures and the successes. Because when you grow up from a little country, the big success, you don't really know all the time how to manage it.

"And I feel like I managed it very well and I didn't change much. So I think this, I'm the proudest of."

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