05 February 2025 , 13:15
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The former world No 1 Simona Halep has announced her retirement after enduring a resounding defeat in her first match of 2025.
Halep belatedly got her season under way in her home event, the Transylvania Open, in Romania on Tuesday, after being handed a wildcard. But the two-time grand slam title winner secured just two games as Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti powered to a 6-1, 6-1 victory in just 59 minutes.
Speaking in an emotional on-court interview, Halep said: “Tonight, I don’t know if it’s with joy or sadness, I think both feelings are trying me but I’m making this decision with my soul.
“I’ve always been realistic with myself and with my body. Where I probably was, it’s very hard to get there and I know what it means to get there. That’s why I wanted to come here today in Cluj to play in front of you and say goodbye.
“Even though my performance wasn’t very good it was still my soul and I’m very glad you came, and I’ll wonder if I’ll come back again. But for now it’s the last time I’ve played here and 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 that we will see each other again. I’ll come to the tennis here as often as I can and of course I will continue to play – but to be competitive it requires much more and at this moment it is no longer.”
Halep, who was given a four-year doping ban that was reduced to nine months due to a contaminated supplement, last competed on the WTA Tour in October in Hong Kong. The 33-year-old also played in an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi in December, but subsequently pulled out of qualifying for the Australian Open, citing pain in her knee and shoulder.
This week Halep admitted that retiring “goes through my mind very often”. She told the Romanian website Golazo.ro: “I am old, I have injuries that I can’t recover from. My knee is not recovering.”