5 incredible milestones that define Simona Halep’s legend status
After a career that saw her win two Grand Slam titles and spend 64 weeks as the world No 1, Simona Halep hung up her racket for the final time this week.
The end of the Romanian’s career has been controversial. Still, there can be no denying that she was one of the greatest players of her generation, attaining milestones few have achieved.
With Halep’s career now over, we look back at five of her most incredible achievements – all of which signify her place as a tennis great.
Three unforced errors
Halep’s career was defined by epic matches, with her run to the 2018 Australian Open final testament to that.
However, it was one of her most straightforward matches that well and truly sealed her place in history.
Many saw Halep as an underdog against Serena Williams in the 2019 Wimbledon final, only for the Romanian to storm to a 6-2, 6-2 victory and claim the second of her two Grand Slam titles.
The Romanian would describe it as the “best match” of her career, and she was just three shots away from attaining a ‘perfect’ performance.
Halep hit just three unforced errors in the match, a Grand Slam final Open Era record for a male or female player.
At 56 minutes in length, it is also one of the shortest Wimbledon women’s finals, while only Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, and Petra Kvitova have dropped fewer games in a final at SW19.
Five Grand Slam finals
Alongside her 2019 Wimbledon and 2018 French Open triumphs, the Romanian was also a French Open runner-up in 2014 and 2017, and at the Australian Open in 2018.
Compared to the leading players of her generation, Halep can confidently claim that no player reached more Grand Slam finals than her.
The Romanian’s five major finals are matched by Victoria Azarenka, though she sits ahead of Angelique Kerber (four), and both Kvitova and Caroline Wozniacki (3).
Halep is one of just 10 women to reach five or more Grand Slam finals in the 21st century, with only Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka having hit that total since.
Success on all surfaces
With Grand Slam titles won on clay and grass, and a further final reached on hard courts, Halep’s career is highlighted by sustained success on all three surfaces.
None of her contemporaries previously mentioned – Azarenka, Kvitova, Kerber, or Wozniacki – were able to reach major finals on all three surfaces.
The Romanian is one of just six women this century to have won both the Roland Garros and Wimbledon titles, joining Williams, Maria Sharapova, Garbine Muguruza, Ashleigh Barty, and Barbora Krejcikova.
Alongside Serena and Venus Williams, Sharapova, Barty, Muguruza, and Justine Henin, she is also just one of seven women to reach major finals on all three surfaces since 2000.
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373 Weeks
From January 2014 to August 2021, Halep spent a staggering 373 straight weeks inside the top 10 of the WTA Rankings.
That is the eighth-longest streak ever achieved by a woman since the WTA Rankings were introduced in 1975 – and it only came to an end due to an injury she sustained at the 2021 Italian Open.
Most remarkably, Halep finished every season from 2014 to 2020 inside the top four of the WTA Rankings, a run of seven straight years.
That includes finishing as the world No 1 in both 2017 and 2018, and places her ahead of pretty much all the leading players she faced during her career.
Williams and Sharapova’s best run of consecutive top-four finishes at any stage of their career was five seasons, with the likes of Wozniacki and Azarenka achieving three consecutive finishes.
$40m prize money
Prize money statistics rarely factor in inflation, meaning they are inherently flawed – and aren’t always the most accurate way to define someone’s greatness.
However, as of February 2025, only both Serena and Venus Williams have won more prize money on the WTA Tour than the Romanian.
Serena won $94.8m and Venus $42.6m, with Halep in third place on $40.2m.
She sits ahead of Sharapova, Azarenka, Kvitova, and Wozniacki – who occupy fourth to seventh place respectively – with current world No 2 Swiatek in eighth as things stand.
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