Athlete of the Year 2014: Tennis Player Simona Halep

The year 2014 was marked by a series of top-level results for Romanian sports.

România Internațional, 07.01.2015, 13:30

The year 2014 was marked by a series of top-level results for Romanian sports. In fencing and gymnastics, our country succeeded in defending its place among the world’s top-performing nations, very much owing to the silver medals grabbed by Tiberiu Dolniceanu and Larisa Iordache in the World Championships. The most outstanding performance however came from women’s tennis, where Simona Halep had an amazing ascension in 2014, ranking 2nd in world standings. For her remarkable run this year, we have designated Simon Halep Athlete of the Year 2014 on Radio Romania International.

The first notable achievement for Simona came in May 2013, in Rome. It is there that her ascension started, after knocking out several worldclass players ever since the first qualifying rounds. She reached as far as the semifinals. In 2013 Simona won 6 top-level tournaments. She started the year in 47th place and began the 2014 season in 11th place.

This year Simona had an unconvincing debut, being knocked out early, in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, by Dominika Cibulkova. At the indoor tournament in Paris she lost in the round of 16 to Kristina Mladenovic of France. Her good run started in Doha, in February. Simona slapped a 6-2, 6-3 win against Angelique Kerber of Germany in the finals. In March, she lost the Indian Wells semi-finals to Agnieska Radwanska of Poland. In May she played in the Madrid finals against Maria Sharapova. The same Russian player denied Simona her first win in a Grand Slam tournament, at Roland Garros. In June, she reached as far as the semi-finals of the Wimbledon tournament, losing to Eugenie Bouchard of Canada. In July she won the Bucharest Open, defeating Roberta Vinci of Italy in the finals, 6-1, 6-3. In August she was ranked 2nd in world standings, the highest ranking for a Romania.

Then came the Champions Tournament in Singapore of October, where she reached as far as the finals, losing to Serena Williams of the United States. In the group phase however Simona grabbed an impressive 6-nil, 6-2 win, her first against Serena. She finished the year in 3rd place in WTA standings. Here is what the 23-year-old player told us about her overall performance this year:

Simona Halep: “I worked a lot, I stuck to my daily schedule without fail…I had a strict program, I didn’t get side-tracked. It’s a great achievement for me to be in 3rd place. I never would have dreamt this at the beginning of the year, but now that I think about it, it comes as little surprise. It’s a great feeling when you see your work recognized, and I’m not planning to stop here. I’ll go as high as I can”.