What is Simona Halep's Net Worth?
Simona Halep is a Romanian professional tennis player who has a net worth of $30 million.
Simona Halep has been ranked world No. 1 in singles twice, between 2017 and 2019. During that time, she won the 2018 French Open and the 2019 Wimbledon Championships. Halep is the first Romanian woman to be ranked world No. 1 and the first to win a Wimbledon singles title.
On July 7, 2018 Simona Halep was upset in the third round of Wimbledon by an unseeded player named Su-Wei Hsieh. A year later, on July 13, 2019, Simona returned to Wimbeldon and won the entire tournament. In the finals she defeated Serena Williams in just 56 minutes.
Career Earnings
To date Simona Halep has won more than $40 million in tournament prize money. She has earned tens of millions more from endorsements. Halep was endorsed by Adidas for many years until she switched to Nike in February 2018. She also has had sponsorships with companies like Lacoste, Hublot, Mercedes Benz and Vodafone.
Early Life
Simona Halep was born on September 27, 1991 in Constanța, Romania to Tania and Stere. She has an older brother named Nicolae. Halep's father was a former football player in Romania, and encouraged his children to pursue athletics. As a result, Halep began playing tennis when she was four years old. When she was a teenager, she was partly sponsored by Corneliu Idu, the owner of the leading tennis club in her city. Halep eventually moved to Bucharest to train at a higher level.
Junior Career
Halep began playing tennis on the ITF Junior Circuit in 2005. She quickly proved her prowess, winning all four ITF singles events she entered in 2006. The year after that, Halep moved up to higher-level events and won her first and only Grade 1 title. She also made her junior Grand Slam debut, losing in the third round at the French Open, US Open, and Wimbledon. Halep spent her last year on the junior tour in 2008. That year, she finished runner-up at Nottinghill and made it to the semifinals of the Australian Open, and won her first Grade A title at the Trofeo Bonfiglio. Halep subsequently ended her junior career by winning a junior Grand Slam title at the French Open.
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Professional Career
After turning professional in 2006, Halep played various low-level ITF Women's Circuit events in Romania. She did that for a couple years before finishing her junior career in 2008. In 2009, Halep notched her first top 100 victory and made her debut in the top 200 of the WTA rankings. The next year, she made her WTA main draw debut and finished runner-up at the Morocco Open before making her Grand Slam debut at the French Open. As she rose in the rankings, Halep was directly accepted into a Grand Slam main draw at the US Open, where she lost to Jelena Janković. Her playing improved throughout 2011, starting at the Australian Open with her first career Grand Slam match wins. Halep went on to win a match at the French Open, reach the second round at Wimbledon, and record her first top 10 victory at the US Open by defeating Li Na in her opening match. Closing out the year, she was No. 47 in the world. Halep maintained that ranking in 2012.
Halep had her breakthrough year in 2013, kicked off by a semifinals appearance at the Italian Open. Although she struggled at the Grand Slams, she was dominant in lower-level tournaments, winning six WTA titles and rising to world No. 11. She became the first woman to win her first six WTA titles in the same season since Steffi Graf achieved that feat in 1986. In recognition of her success, Halep was named the WTA Most Improved Player of the Year. She only got better in 2014, reaching her first Grand Slam quarterfinal, at the Australian Open, and making it to the finals of the Madrid Open and the French Open. After winning the Bucharest Open, Halep rose to No. 2 in the world. In 2015, she won the Shenzhen Open, Dubai Tennis Championships, and the Indian Wells Open, and reached the semifinals of the US Open.
In 2016, Halep underperformed at the Grand Slam events. However, she won the Madrid Open, Bucharest Open, and Canadian Open. Halep went on to have one of her best seasons in 2017; despite a slow start, she defended her Madrid Open title and was runner-up at the French Open, Cincinnati Open, and China Open. This was enough to push her to the world No. 1 ranking, unseating Garbiñe Muguruza. Consequently, Halep became the first Romanian woman to become world No. 1. She held on to that ranking for close to the entirety of 2018 thanks to multiple victories and runner-up finishes. Among them, Halep won the Shenzhen Open and Canadian Open, was runner-up at the Australian Open and Italian Open, and won her first career Grand Slam title at the French Open. She followed her sensational 2018 by winning Wimbledon in 2019, making her the first Romanian ever to win a singles title at the event.
In 2020, Halep won three WTA titles to bring her total to 22; the wins came at the Dubai Tennis Championships, the Prague Open, and the Italian Open. She went on to have a disappointing 2021 season, largely due to a calf injury. As a result, Halep fell out of the top 10 for the first time in seven years, ending her incredible 373-week streak. She finished 2021 with a rank of No. 20, having failed to win any WTA singles title for the first time since 2012. Halep rebounded in 2022 by winning the Canadian Open, pushing her back into the top 10. However, later in the year, it was announced that she had tested positive for a banned substance when she competed at the US Open. She was then banned for four years for two separate anti-doping violations, and Halep plans to appeal the decision.
Personal Life
Halep married businessman Gabriel Iuruc in 2021. A year later, she announced her divorce.
