Simona Halep pronounces retirement at 33 after 2 Grand Slam titles and return from ban

File image of Romania’s Simona Halep after profitable the Wimbledon in 2019
| Photograph Credit score: AP

Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep introduced her retirement from tennis at age 33 after a first-round loss at a event in her dwelling nation of Romania on Tuesday, ending an injury-filled comeback from a doping suspension.

Halep used a microphone to deal with the group in Cluj-napoca, Romania, following her 6-1, 6-1 loss to Lucia Bronzetti within the Transylvania Open.

That was the primary match of the 12 months for Halep, who reached No. 1 within the WTA rankings for the primary time in 2017 however is now 870th and was given a wild-card invitation to play in Romania.

She had pulled out of qualifying for the Australian Open and a tuneup event in Auckland, New Zealand, final month due to ache in her knee and shoulder, the most recent interruption of her profession.

Halep as soon as stood atop girls’s tennis, profitable main singles trophies at Wimbledon in 2019 by beating Serena Williams within the last and on the French Open in 2018 by beating Sloane Stephens within the last.

She additionally was a three-time runner-up at Grand Slam tournaments — on the Australian Open in 2018 and the French Open in 2014 and 2017.

Ban and return

However her final look at a significant occasion got here on the 2022 U.S. Open. That was the place Halep misplaced within the first spherical to Daria Snigur of Ukraine 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 and examined constructive for the banned drug Roxadustat.

Roxadustat was permitted to be used within the European Union in 2021 to deal with the signs of anemia brought on by persistent kidney failure. It stimulates the physique to supply extra of the pure hormone erythropoietin, or EPO, which has lengthy been a doping product favored by cyclists and distance runners to spice up stamina.

Halep initially was given a four-year ban that will have expired in 2026. However she appealed, and the Court docket of Arbitration for Sport diminished the penalty to 9 months in March 2024.

She argued that she was uncovered to a contaminated complement that induced her failed take a look at. CAS decided that Halep bore “some stage of fault or negligence” for not exercising “ample care” whereas utilizing the complement, however “she bore no important fault or negligence.” So that’s the reason, CAS mentioned, “her anti-doping rule violations weren’t intentional.”

Halep made her return to the tour later that month on the Miami Open however has performed a complete of solely six matches since then.

She leaves the game with 24 singles titles and greater than $40 million in prize cash.