FORMER World No. 1 Simona Halep has announced her retirement from tennis.
The ex-Wimbledon and French Open champion, 33, only returned to competitive action last year following a drugs ban.
Halep played her last match at the Transylvania Open in her native Romania on Tuesday.
After toiling to a straight sets loss to Lucia Bronzetti, an emotional Halep announced her decision to step away from tennis.
She told the crowd: “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.”
Halep was thrashed 1-6, 1-6 by Bronzetti in a match that lasted just one hour.
She continued: “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’ll play 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 ever 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 [my career] is no longer.”
Halep tested positive for the banned substance roxadustat at the 2022 US Open.
She was originally banned from tennis for four years and was due to return in October 2026.
But after a successful appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Halep returned to the court last March.
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Her ban was reduced after she successfully argued her positive test was the result of a contaminated substance.
The 33-year-old failed to qualify for any Grand Slams in 2024.
And she’s now chosen to step away from the sport after a glittering career.
Halep won the French Open in 2018 and added the Wimbledon crown to her Grand Slam haul a year later.
She racked up 24 career singles titles on her way to becoming World No. 1, earning over £32million in career prize money.
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