Simona Halep has admitted that retirement “goes through my mind very often” as her recent injury woes are starting to take its toll.
Since being cleared to return to professional tennis in February 2024 following her successful appeal against her doping ban, Halep has played only two WTA Tour-level matches.
The first was an opening-round defeat at the Miami Open last March and the second was at the Hong Kong Tennis Open in October.
The two-time Grand Slam winner started the 2025 season outside the top 800 in the WTA Rankings, but was handed a wildcard for the qualifiers at the Australian Open.
She later withdrew from the qualifying tournament as she struggled with knee and shoulder injuries.
Having played so little over the past few years – she didn’t feature on the WTA Tour at all in 2023 due to her ban for testing positive for roxadustat at the 2022 US Open – Halep admits retirement might not be too far off.
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“Of course I think about retiring, and this goes through my mind very often. I am old, I have injuries that I can’t recover from. My knee is not recovering,” she told Golazo.ro.
“I have always said that tennis is not life in its entirety. Of course, I still have many desires and goals in this life after tennis.
“Everything I have done in tennis has been extraordinary, I have worked for it and I feel like a very fulfilled tennis player. I would like to do something else, not just tennis.”
Despite her recent struggles, Halep has achieved what most can only dream of as she peaked at No 1 in the rankings, won the French Open in 2017 and Wimbledon in 2018 while she also has three Grand Slam runners-up trophies to her name.
The 33-year-old, who has won 24 career singles titles, is happy with her achievements.
But her knee injury might just force to head into retirement sooner than she expected.
The Romanian added: “My knee is still giving me a headache because it’s a cartilage tear and it’s not easy to manage. At the moment it doesn’t hurt, but I haven’t had any official matches either. That’s the problem.”
There is good news for Halep fans as she will make her 2025 debut at her home event, the Transylvania Open, next week after being handed a wildcard.
The will face Italian Lucia Bronzetti in the first round with the likes of Anastasia Potapova, Olga Danilovic and Peyton Stearns also in the main draw.