Simona Halep’s style in 5 steps

World No.1

A native of Constanta, on the West coast of the Black Sea, Simona Halep is the daughter of a Romanian football player. Like all future champions, she started playing tennis very early, at the age of four. It was not until eighteen years later, at the Rome Masters tournament in 2013, that her immense potential came to light. On three occasions, Simona Halep fell at the last hurdle in a Grand Slam: at Roland Garros in 2014 and 2017 then at the Australian Open in 2018. After the Beijing tournament in 2017, Simona shot into the World No.1 position, without ever having won a Grand Slam or a Masters, and is the first Romanian woman ever to have occupied the top spot in the women’s rankings.  

Millennials

Simona Halep is a master on the clay, and on social media! Highly active online, she has no fewer than 224 K Twitter followers, 782 K Instagram followers and more than 1,500,000 people follow her on Facebook… As a worthy representative of the “Millennial” generation, the most recent French Open champion knows how to work it. Staying true to her personality, Simona posts about her private and professional life in a very simple and natural way (if you call having a laugh with Serena simple and natural!).

Her idol

From a very young age, Simona has idolised a particular tennis player: Justine Henin, a Belgian player with multiple titles, including seven Grand Slams and an Olympic gold in Athens in 2004.

What have they got in common? Their small stature! Henin is just under 5 ft 5 in and Halep is only slightly taller.

"Justine Henin was my idol when I was growing up,” says Simona Halep. “I liked her a lot and I liked how she played, her personality on the court.”

A dream come true

Simona Halep’s dreams of victory have finally come true! She will always remember the 9th June 2018 as the day she clinched a much hoped-for and well-deserved victory. A first Grand Slam title for the World No.1, who has finally shaken off the curse that seemed to block her path until now, causing her to lose two finals at the Porte-d’Auteuil.

But hope prevailed and, in a closely-fought match, Simona showed enormous resistance and unrelenting persistence against a formidable opponent. It’s this fighting attitude that we love at Roland Garros!

Celebrating victory

Some crumble to the floor, throw their racquet in the air, fall to their knees, scream with joy and cry, others draw a heart on the clay …  Simona Halep, however, treated us to a great sporting moment, climbing up into the stands on Philippe-Chatrier court to melt serenely into the arms of her clan. A lovely image and a unique, unexpected and spontaneous way of celebrating her victory.