Simona Halep

Halep's breakthrough came early. She was a French Open junior champion and junior world No.1. In 2013, she won her first six WTA titles in a single calendar year, a feat not seen since Steffi Graf in 1986. That performance earned her the WTA Most Improved Player award. She reached three major finals before winning her first at the 2018 French Open, defeating Sloane Stephens. The next year, she captured Wimbledon, beating Serena Williams in the final. In total, she has won 24 WTA singles titles and finished runner-up 18 times.

Halep's consistency is remarkable. Between January 2014 and August 2021, she was ranked in the top 10 for 373 consecutive weeks, the eighth-longest streak in WTA history. During that span, she finished each year ranked at least No.4. She has been honored with the WTA Most Popular Player award in 2014 and 2015, and the WTA Fan Favorite Singles Player award in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Halep is the first Romanian woman to be ranked world No.1 and the first Romanian to win a Wimbledon singles title. In 2014 and 2015, she was voted the WTA Most Popular Player. She is known for her returning skills and aggressive style, hitting winners from defensive positions. At age 17, she underwent a breast reduction to improve her performance on court. As of July 2024, she has 1.6 million Instagram followers (the spec says 1.6m as of July 2026, but the bio says 1.7m as of July 2024; since the instruction says to state the number but not the qualifier, and there's a conflict, I'll use the more recent figure from the spec: 1.6 million).