Simona Halep hung up her racket, professionally speaking, this week at the Winners Open in her home country of Romania. She had not had the most successful run over the last year, and before that, things were worse. This all came after a career that saw her win two Grand Slams and reach No. 1 on the WTA tour. She is currently ranked number 883.
Her career was derailed after she failed a drug test at the 2022 US Open and she was provisionally suspended in October of that year. She tested positive for the banned substance roxadustat. She was handed a ban of four years, which, compared to recent failed drug tests by Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek, seems overly harsh. One year? Maybe. Four was ridiculous.
Even her former coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, admitted that the reason for the negative test might have ultimately been his fault. The roxadustat appears to have been in some collagen that the coach gave Halep. Neither the coach nor the player appear to have done anything intentionally wrong, but the damage was done.
Simona Halep announces her retirement from professional tennis
After Halep appealed her suspension, the Court of Arbitration for Sport in March 2024 dismissed one of the charges against Halep and lessened her suspension to nine months. As the player had already served well over that, she was free to return to playing on the WTA. Her return proved to be unsuccessful, though. She finished with a 1-5 since her return.
Part of what did not help was that Halep was already in her 30s when she was able to return to tennis, and that is an age when many players are thinking of retiring. After a year and a half layoff, expecting Halep to come back at a high level would have been too much. She was also set back by injuries.
At the Winners Open, she lost to Lucia Bronzetti dismally 6-1 6-1.
In her post-match on-court interview, Halep said, "I wanted to come here today in Cluj to play in front of you and say goodbye on the court to tennis...I don’t want to cry. It’s a beautiful thing. I became world No. 1, I won Grand Slams. It’s all I wanted. Life goes on. There is life after tennis and I hope we will see each other again. Of course, I will continue to play tennis, but to be competitive requires much more, and at this moment, it is no longer possible."