Two-time Grand Slam champion and former world No. 1 Simona Halep has declared her retirement from tennis.
After losing to Lucia Bronzetti 6-1, 6-1 in her opening round match at the Transylvania Open in Cluj, Romania, on Tuesday, the Romanian made her choice public.
Speaking to fans following her loss, Halep said that getting to that level is extremely challenging and that she knows what it takes to get there, according to AP.
Despite her poor performance, she clarified that she wanted to be in Cluj that day to play in front of the audience and bid farewell on the tennis court.
Since making a comeback to the court last year following a doping ban, Halep has battled ailments.
When the 33-year-old tested positive for the prohibited drug Roxadustat during the 2022 US Open, he was given a four-year suspension in September 2023.
The two-time Grand Slam winner was allowed to rejoin the sport when the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) determined in March of last year that Halep's anti-doping infractions were not deliberate and lowered the backdated sentence to nine months.
The International Tennis Integrity Agency also revealed that Halep was facing charges of having anomalies in her Athlete Biological Passport (ABP), which is intended to track a player's chosen biological characteristics over time, at the same time that she was given her ban. That charge was dropped by CAS.
However, prior to her exile, Halep had a prosperous career that included 64 weeks as the women's world No. 1 and 24 WTA singles titles.
She secured her second Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 2019 after winning her first at the French Open in 2018.
She defeated Serena Williams in the Wimbledon final with ease, making only three unforced mistakes before finishing the match in less than an hour. Furthermore, she regarded it at the time as her finest performance to date.
Halep went on to say on Tuesday that it takes a lot more to be competitive again, and it is now impossible.
She said she didn't want to weep since what she had done was so lovely. She achieved her lifelong goals of winning Grand Slam championships and rising to the top of the international rankings.