Athlete of the Week: Romanian tennis player Simona Halep

The 2014 Wimbledon Tennis Championships came to an end on Sunday.

România Internațional, 08.07.2014, 13:00

In the women’s final on Saturday, world no. 6 Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic defeated Eugenie Bouchard of Canada 6-3, 6-0 to win her second Wimbledon title. The most successful Romanian player at these championships, Simona Halep, made it as far as the semi-finals, where she was defeated by Eugenie Bouchard in two sets, 7-6, 6-2.

That is why Radio Romania International designated Simona Halep the Athlete of the Week. Following her run at Wimbledon, Simona Halep will receive 440,000 pounds and 780 WTA points. Simona Halep was born on September 27, 1991, in the southern Romanian city of Constanta. She made her debut in professional tennis, in 2006, when she played her first matches in the ITF circuit. In 2010, Simona made it to top 100. The progress she made was amazing, as in 2013 her record included 53 wins and 17 defeats, as well as six WTA tournaments. Simona emerged as winner is the Nurnberg, s’ Hertogenbosch and Budapest tournaments, also winning the tournaments in New Haven, Moscow, and Sofia.

Simona’s notable challenger to the Athlete of the Week title this week has been another Romanian tennis player, Irina Begu, who won the ITF tournament in the French town of Contrexeville, with 100,000 prize money up for grabs. In the finals, Irina defeated the main favorite to winning the tournament, Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi, 6-3, 6-4.

This week, Simona Halep and Irina Begu will be joining other top-flight tennis players from Romania and from abroad, since Romania’s capital city Bucharest will play host, for the first time, to a WTA tournament, with 250,000 dollars prize money at stake. Simona Halep is the tournament’s main favorite and will be playing in the first round on Wednesday, when she will be taking on Kristina Mladenovic of France.