Simona Halep (born 27 September 1991) is a Romanian professional tennis player who is currently ranked world No. 2. Halep first broke into the world's top 50 at the end of 2012, the top 20 in August 2013, and then the top 10 in January 2014 (after reaching the Australian Open quarterfinal). She won her first 6 WTA titles in the same calendar year in 2013 (a feat that was last achieved by Steffi Graf in 1986 when she won her first 7), being named the WTA's Most Improved Player at its end, as well as being named ESPN Center Court's 2013 Most Improved Player. Halep reached the 2014 French Open final, her first Grand Slam final, where she played against Maria Sharapova, losing in three sets. She also reached the final of the WTA Finals the same year, but lost to Serena Williams.
Simona Halep has self-described her playing style as being "an aggressive baseliner" and "she models her game on Justine Henin". Henin herself said of Halep, "She has an intelligent game. There is a little something that reminds me of myself... it is offensive and aggressive." In 2010, before her breakthrough, New York Times columnist Michael Kimmelman described her as "a scrappy player from Romania, short but with potent ground strokes and a scrambler's talent."Simona was born in the Dobrujan city of Constanța, to Stere and Tania Halep, a family of Aromanian descent. Her father (a former football player at Săgeata Stejaru playing in the lower leagues) owns a dairy products factory. Halep started playing tennis at the age of four, in emulation of her older brother. At age 6, she was practicing daily. At age 16, she relocated to Bucharest to further her tennis career. She named Justine Henin and Andrei Pavel as two of her idols when she was younger.
