2006–10: Top 100 debut Halep turned pro in 2006 and started her professional career playing low-level
ITF Women's Circuit events in Romania in 2006 and 2007. She won both her first two ITF singles and doubles titles in back-to-back weeks in Bucharest in May 2007. After accomplishing this feat a third time the following year, Halep won her first $25k singles title in Sweden in June 2008. She began playing more higher-level events once she finished her junior career, reaching a $50k final in 2009 in
Makarska. Halep also attempted to qualify for WTA events twice that year, losing in the second qualifying round at both the
Open GdF Suez and the
French Open. Towards the end of the season, she defeated 96
Angelique Kerber for her first top 100 victory and also reached the semifinals of a $50k event in Minsk to make her debut in the top 200 of the WTA rankings. Halep made her WTA Tour main-draw debut in April 2010, qualifying for three consecutive events. This success helped her rise from No. 166 at the beginning of April to No. 110 in the first set of rankings in May. Halep's best result of the year after the US Open was a final at the $100k
Torhout Ladies Open, which helped her finish the season with a year-end ranking of No. 81 in the world. During the clay court season, Halep defended her runner-up finish at the
Morocco Open from the previous year, again losing in the final, this time to
Alberta Brianti. Nonetheless, she struggled in the other clay court tournaments, only recording one more match win, which came in the opening round at the
2011 French Open. At the 2012 Olympics, she competed in the women's singles, losing in the first round, and the women's doubles, with Sorana Cîrstea, also losing in the first round. During the
US Open Series, Halep qualified for the
Rogers Cup and recorded her first top 20 victory against No. 15
Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round. At the
US Open, Halep then recorded her first top 10 victory over No. 6
Li Na in her opening match, despite playing with an ankle sprain she suffered at the Rogers Cup. Despite a loss to
Carla Suárez Navarro in the next round, this result put Halep in the top 50 for the first time. She finished the year at No. 47 in the world. The final in Brussels was Halep's first at the Premier level. She defeated No. 21 Jelena Janković and No. 16
Dominika Cibulková, before losing to top seed and world No. 3,
Agnieszka Radwańska.
2013: Breakthrough, six WTA Tour titles, world No. 11 Halep had a slow start to the year, only winning multiple matches at a tournament once before May. Halep continued to struggle at the majors, losing in the opening round at both the
Australian Open and the
French Open, while making the second round at
Wimbledon. After a third title at the
Budapest Grand Prix, she climbed up to No. 23 in the world. Halep continued her success at the
US Open, where she was seeded at a Grand Slam event for the first time at No. 21. She made it to the fourth round, her best result at a Grand Slam event then. Halep won a fifth title at the Premier-level
Kremlin Cup, defeating Stosur in the final. At the end of the season, she qualified for the
WTA Tournament of Champions, an event for the highest-ranked WTA title-holders who did not qualify for the
WTA Finals. Halep won this event as well, defeating No. 16
Ana Ivanovic and No. 19 Stosur in the knockout rounds. With her sixth WTA title, she finished the year at No. 11 in the world and was named the
WTA Most Improved Player of the Year. She was second on the tour in singles titles behind only Serena Williams who had 11, and was the first woman to win her first six career titles in the same season since
Steffi Graf in 1986.
2014: French Open final, world No. 2 Halep greatly improved her Grand Slam results in 2014. With a victory of No. 8 Jelena Janković, she reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the
Australian Open, where she was upset by No. 20
Dominika Cibulková. With this result, Halep made her debut in the top 10 of the WTA rankings. The next month, Halep won her first Premier 5 title at the
Qatar Open, defeating three top 10 opponents in the last three rounds, including No. 9
Angelique Kerber in the final. After a semifinal at the
Indian Wells Open, she rose to No. 5 in the world, making her the highest-ranked Romanian in the history of the WTA rankings. During the clay court season, Halep reached the two biggest finals of her career to date. She finished runner-up to
Maria Sharapova at both the Premier Mandatory
Madrid Open and the
French Open. She had not lost a set before the French Open final, making her the first woman to reach her maiden Grand Slam final without dropping a set since
Martina Hingis at the
1997 Australian Open. Both finals went to three sets, and the French Open final lasted over three hours. With these two runner-ups, Halep moved up to No. 3. Nonetheless, she recovered in time to play inaugural
Bucharest Open in her home country of Romania a week later. She won the event for her second and last title of the year, defeating
Roberta Vinci in the final. This helped her rise to No. 2 in the world in August. Although she was the second seed at the
US Open, she was upset in straight sets by veteran qualifier
Mirjana Lučić-Baroni. The next month, she withdrew from the
Beijing Open in the quarterfinals due to a hip injury. She did not play another event until the
WTA Tour Championships, where she qualified for the first time. Halep won two of three matches in her round robin group to advance to the knockout rounds, defeating No. 5 Eugenie Bouchard and No. 1 Serena Williams before losing her last match to No. 7 Ana Ivanovic. The victory over Williams was her first over a current world No. 1 and was also tied for the most lopsided loss of Williams' career at the time, as Halep held her to just two games. Halep won her semifinal against No. 6 Agnieszka Radwańska to set up a rematch with Williams in the final. In a complete reversal of the round robin match, Williams won the final easily, limiting Halep to just three games. Halep finished the year at No. 3 in the world, behind Williams and Sharapova. she lost in the quarterfinals at the
Australian Open for the second straight year, this time to No. 11
Ekaterina Makarova. Nonetheless, Halep rebounded to win her next two events, the
Dubai Tennis Championships and the
Indian Wells Open. The former was her second Premier 5 title and tenth WTA title in total, while the latter was her first Premier Mandatory title and biggest title to date. She extended her win streak to 14 matches at the
Miami Open where she lost in the semifinals to world No. 1 Serena Williams. Halep did not reach any finals during the clay court season, with her best results being two semifinals at the
Stuttgart Open and the
Italian Open. She was two points away from advancing to the final in Rome, but could not break
Carla Suárez Navarro at 5–4 in the third set and ended up losing. In the second round of the
French Open, she was upset by Mirjana Lučić-Baroni for the second time in the last three majors. She performed even worse at
Wimbledon, being upset by No. 106
Jana Čepelová while struggling with a blister on her foot. After Wimbledon, Halep took more than a month off before returning to tournament play for the North American hard court season. She rebounded from her results off the hard courts and finished runner-up at both Premier 5 events in August, the
Canadian Open and the
Cincinnati Open. Halep had won the second set of the final in Canada against
Belinda Bencic, but ultimately needed to retire midway through the third set due to heat illness two and a half hours into the match. She recovered in time to play Cincinnati, but lost in the final to world No. 1 Serena Williams. Halep then produced her best Grand Slam result of the year, a semifinal at the
US Open. She was upset at the event by the eventual champion, No. 26
Flavia Pennetta. At the end of the season, Halep qualified for the
WTA Finals and became the top seed at the event after Williams withdrew. Although she defeated Pennetta in her opening match, she lost her last two round robin matches to No. 4 Maria Sharapova and No. 6 Agnieszka Radwańska and did not advance out of the group. Nonetheless, she finished the season with a career-best year-end ranking of No. 2 in the world. She dealt with both an achilles injury and infections in the first two months of the season, and delayed nose surgery so she could play in the
Fed Cup. In March, Halep lost in the quarterfinals at both Premier Mandatory events, the
Indian Wells Open and the
Miami Open. Having reached at least the semifinals at both events the previous year, she fell out of the top 5 in the rankings for the first time in over a year and a half. She did not continue this form into the
French Open, losing to Samantha Stosur in the fourth round in a controversial match where play continued in rainy conditions. Halep fared better at
Wimbledon, losing to eventual runner-up No. 4 Angelique Kerber in the quarterfinals. Halep followed up Wimbledon with back-to-back titles at the
Bucharest Open and the
Canadian Open, her last two titles of the year. She also made her first career WTA doubles final at the Canadian Open, finishing runner-up to
Ekaterina Makarova and
Elena Vesnina alongside compatriot
Monica Niculescu. In singles, Halep was able to defeat Kerber in Canada in the semifinals, and won in the final against No. 12
Madison Keys. However, she lost to Kerber in the semifinals at her next event, the
Cincinnati Open. At the
US Open, Halep made another Grand Slam quarterfinal, losing to world No. 1 Serena Williams in a tight three-set match. Her best result of the last stage of the year was a semifinal at the
Wuhan Open, where she lost to eventual champion Petra Kvitová. For the second straight year, Halep ended the season by failing to advance out of her round robin group at the
WTA Finals. After a win against No. 7 Keys and a loss to No. 1 Kerber, Halep only needed to win a set against No. 8 Cibulková to advance, but lost in straight sets. She finished the season ranked No. 4 in the world. During this time, she was having issues with her left knee. Halep rebounded during the clay court season, reaching at least the semifinals at all four events she entered. She defended her title at the
Madrid Open to secure a Premier Mandatory title for the third consecutive year. She also made the final the following week at the Premier 5
Italian Open, but finished runner-up to No. 11
Elina Svitolina. At the
French Open, she faced Svitolina again in the quarterfinals and fell behind a set and 5–1 before coming from behind to take the second set in a tiebreak and ultimately win the match. She also needed to save a match point in the second set tiebreak. Halep defeated world No. 3
Karolína Plíšková in the semifinals in three sets to make her second final at the French Open. Heavily favoured against unseeded
Jeļena Ostapenko, Halep led the final by a set and a break before Ostapenko came from behind to win in three sets. With the runner-up, she moved back to No. 2 in the world. With Serena Williams falling out of the top 10 following Wimbledon due to pregnancy, Halep became the longest-tenured member of the WTA top 10. Halep continued to produce strong results in the second half of the season. She made it to the semifinals at the
Canadian Open, losing again to Svitolina. She fared better at the
Cincinnati Open, finishing runner-up to
Garbiñe Muguruza. However, at the
US Open, Halep was given a difficult draw in the first round against former champion
Maria Sharapova, who was unseeded because she was returning from a doping suspension. Sharapova defeated Halep in three sets, ending her streak of reaching the quarterfinals at 10 consecutive events. Nonetheless, Halep rebounded and reached another Premier Mandatory final at the
China Open. She defeated Sharapova during the event, but finished runner-up to No. 15
Caroline Garcia. Despite the loss, Halep became the world No. 1 for the first time, taking the ranking from Muguruza. She is the first Romanian woman to hold the No. 1 ranking, and the seventh to do so without having first won a Grand Slam tournament. At the
2017 WTA Finals, Halep could not advance out of her round robin group for the third consecutive year. After a win against No. 8 Garcia and a loss to No. 6 Wozniacki, Halep needed to defeat No. 4 Svitolina to advance, but lost in straight sets. She finished the season as the world No. 1. Having not won a match at the
Australian Open in three years, Halep made it all the way to her third Grand Slam final. During the event, she played two of the ten best matches of the year according to
Tennis.com. In the third round, Halep defeated
Lauren Davis in a three-hour and forty-five minute match that ended 15–13 in the third set. She needed to save three match points on her serve at 11–12. Halep and Davis tied the Australian Open record for most games played in the women's singles main draw match with 48. It was also the third longest women's singles match in Australian Open history. The match was ranked as the third-best women's match of the year and seventh-best overall. In the semifinals, Halep defeated No. 16
Angelique Kerber in a two-hour and twenty minute match that ended 9–7 in the third set. After being broken while having a chance to serve the match at 5–3 in the final set, Halep had two break points for the match on Kerber's serve but could not convert. Kerber then broke Halep for a second consecutive service game and had two match points on her own serve, before Halep broke back to level the set at six games each. Halep would break Kerber two service games later on her second match point of the game. The match was ranked as the best women's match of the year and third best overall. Halep faced No. 2
Caroline Wozniacki in the final and lost in another tight three-set match, also losing the No. 1 ranking to Wozniacki. Halep reached two more hard court semifinals in the next two months at the
Qatar Open and the
Indian Wells Open. She regained the No. 1 ranking in late February. Halep did not win any titles on clay in the lead-up to the French Open, with her best result being a runner-up finish at the
Italian Open to Elina Svitolina in a rematch of the previous year's final.
Karolina Plíšková ended Halep's 15-match win streak at the
Madrid Open in the quarterfinals. At the
French Open, Halep made her second Grand Slam final in a row and second consecutive French Open final, defeating No. 12 Angelique Kerber and No. 3 Garbiñe Muguruza in the quarterfinals and semifinals. She then came from a set and a break down against No. 10
Sloane Stephens to win her first career Grand Slam title. She became just the sixth player to win both the girls' singles title and the women's singles title at the French Open, as well as the fourth woman to win a Grand Slam singles title after three or more runner-ups. The only grass court event Halep played was
Wimbledon, where she was upset by world No. 48
Hsieh Su-wei despite having a match point. Halep continued her success on hardcourts, reaching the final at both the
Canadian Open and the
Cincinnati Open. She won the Canadian Open against
Sloane Stephens in three sets in a rematch of the French Open final. The match was ranked as the second-best women's match of the year and the fifth-best overall. Together with her two Australian Open classics, Halep won the three best women's matches of the year according to
Tennis.com. She nearly won back-to-back Premier 5 titles the following week, but finished runner-up to No. 17
Kiki Bertens despite having a match point in the second-set tiebreak. However, Halep would end up losing her last three matches of the year, including her opening match at the
US Open against No. 44
Kaia Kanepi. She ended her season in late September after dealing with an achilles injury and then a back injury.
2019: Wimbledon champion Halep recovered from her back injury in time for the start of the 2019 season. She lost her first match back at the
Sydney International to the eventual runner-up
Ashleigh Barty. She received a difficult draw at the
Australian Open and lost in the fourth round to Serena Williams, who had finished runner-up at the previous two Grand Slam events. With this result, she also lost the No. 1 ranking. Halep finished runner-up to
Elise Mertens at her next event, the
Qatar Open. She made another hard court semifinal at the
Miami Open. Halep's best result on clay was another final at the
Madrid Open, where she lost to
Kiki Bertens. For the first time in three years, she did not reach the final at the
French Open, losing in the quarterfinals to
Amanda Anisimova. As a result, Halep fell to No. 8 in the rankings. At
Wimbledon, Halep made it to the final as the seventh seed, only dropping one set in the second round against compatriot
Mihaela Buzărnescu. She did not face a seeded opponent until she defeated No. 8 Elina Svitolina in the semifinals. Halep entered the final against Serena Williams as an underdog, having won just one match against her in ten meetings. Nonetheless, she won the championship easily in under an hour, losing just two games in each set, and committing only three unforced errors in the entire match, the fewest ever recorded in a Grand Slam final. She became the first Romanian to win a Wimbledon singles title and rose back to world No. 4. After Wimbledon, Halep only played the two Premier 5 tournaments in the lead-up to the US Open, retiring in the quarterfinals of the
Canadian Open and losing in third round to eventual champion Madison Keys at the
Cincinnati Open. Although she won her first-round match at the
US Open for the first time in three years, she was upset in the following round by
Taylor Townsend. Halep closed out her season at the
WTA Finals, where she reunited with coach Darren Cahill. After opening with a victory over No. 4
Bianca Andreescu, she did not advance out of her round robin group after losing to No. 8 Elina Svitolina and No. 2 Karolína Plíšková. She finished the season at No. 4 in the world. but lost in the quarterfinals to
Aryna Sabalenka. At the
Australian Open, Halep reached the semifinals, where she lost to Garbiñe Muguruza, after having defeated
Jennifer Brady,
Harriet Dart,
Yulia Putintseva,
Elise Mertens, and
Anett Kontaveit. Halep won her 20th, 21st, and 22nd WTA titles this year. The first of these came in
Dubai, where she defeated
Ons Jabeur, Aryna Sabalenka, and Jennifer Brady, before defeating
Elena Rybakina in a tight third-set tiebreak in the final. The next was in August at the
Prague Open, where she defeated Elise Mertens in the final. Another title followed in September, when she beat an injured Karolína Plíšková in the
Italian Open final. The
2020 French Open positioned Halep as the heavy favorite. She got through her first three matches in straight sets, but lost to eventual champion
Iga Świątek in the fourth round while winning only three games. As a result, she missed out on regaining the No. 1 ranking. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted much of the season. Halep started 2021 at
Gippsland, where she was defeated in the quarterfinals by
Ekaterina Alexandrova. She also reached the quarterfinals of the
Australian Open, losing to Serena Williams. Halep won one match at the
Miami Open against
Caroline Garcia, but she then withdrew due to a right shoulder injury. In April, at the
Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, she defeated
Markéta Vondroušová and Ekaterina Alexandrova, but lost to Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals. She lost to Elise Mertens in the third round of
Madrid Open. Halep retired from her opening
Italian Open match against with Angelique Kerber after tearing a muscle in her left calf. The calf injury sidelined her from the French Open and Wimbledon, where she was the defending champion from 2019. As a result of not defending her 2019 Wimbledon points, her ranking fell to No. 13, dropping her out of the top 10 for the first time since January 2014 and ending a streak of 373 straight weeks in the top 10, the 8th longest in WTA history. Returning from the injury, Halep entered the
Canadian Open but was upset by
Danielle Collins in three sets. Her first match win since her calf injury came at the
2021 Western & Southern Open against
Magda Linette in the first round. However, she withdrew from the next match due to an injury to her right adductor. Making her Grand Slam return, she defeated
Camila Giorgi in straight sets in the first round of the
US Open. She then defeated
Kristína Kučová and Elena Rybakina to reach the round of 16 for the fourth time in her career, but Elina Svitolina kept her from reaching the quarterfinals. Halep finished the 2021 season at No. 20; previously she had finished each year starting with 2014 in the top 5. This was the first season since 2012 where Halep did not win a WTA singles title.
2022: Two more career titles, back to top 10 The season started again in Australia. Halep won her 23rd title, and first in more than a year, at the
2022 Melbourne Summer Set 1, beating Veronika Kudermetova in the final in straight sets. At the
Australian Open, she defeated
Magdalena Fręch,
Beatriz Haddad Maia and
Danka Kovinić, all in straight sets, but lost in the fourth round in three sets to
Alizé Cornet. In February, Halep reached the semifinals of the
Dubai Open, falling to Jelena Ostapenko, and then Carolina Garcia beat her in the first round of the
Qatar Open. In March, she lost in the semifinals of the
Indian Wells Open to Iga Świątek. Halep then announced
Patrick Mouratoglou as her full-time coach. Halep's next event was the
Madrid Open, where she lost in the quarterfinals to Ons Jabeur. In May at the
Italian Open, she defeated Alizé Cornet in first round, but lost in the second round to Danielle Collins. At the
French Open, Halep lost in the second round to teenager
Zheng Qinwen. After winning the first set, Halep suffered a panic attack and could not focus on the match. Halep reached further semifinals at
Birmingham Classic, where she lost in three sets to Haddad Maia, and in June at the
Bad Homburg Open, where she was forced to withdraw before the match due to a neck injury. At
Wimbledon, Halep reached the semifinals without dropping a set, beating
Karolína Muchová,
Kirsten Flipkens, Magdalena Fręch, No. 4 Paula Badosa, and Amanda Anisimova, but lost to the eventual champion, Elena Rybakina, in the semifinals. At the
Canadian Open, she reached the semifinals defeating Coco Gauff in straight sets. She was through to her 29th career semifinal at a WTA 1000 event, the most of all time, ahead of Serena Williams (26), Agnieszka Radwańska (23), Victoria Azarenka (22) and Maria Sharapova (22) and is 29–9 all-time in quarterfinals at WTA 1000 events. She defeated
Jessica Pegula to reach the final for the fourth time at this tournament and a first WTA 1000 final in two years. She became the player with the joint-most WTA 1000 18 finals to level with Serena Williams since 2009. She won her 24th title and third at the same tournament for the first time in her career defeating Beatriz Haddad Maia. As a result, she returned to the top 10 in the rankings at world No. 6 and is the leader with the most WTA 1000 level wins ever at 185 total. At the
Cincinnati Open, Halep withdrew from her second round match against
Veronika Kudermetova due to thigh injury, after having defeated
Anastasia Potapova in first round. At the
2022 US Open, Halep was stunned by qualifier
Daria Snigur in the first round. After the US Open, she announced she would not play for the rest of the year after undergoing nose surgery.
2023: Doping violation and suspension In October 2022, it was announced that Halep had tested positive for the banned substance
roxadustat at the 2022 US Open. It was later announced that abnormalities were found in Halep's
biological passport, and these would be taken into account at the tribunal. On 12 September 2023, Halep's suspension was upheld, and it was announced that Halep would receive a four-year ban from tennis and be ineligible to return to competition until 7 October 2026. The
International Tennis Integrity Authority (ITIA) published a 126-page detailed report on its investigation of the doping violations and the inconsistencies in her biological passport. Also, the ITIA has asked for disqualification of Halep's results from 8 March 2022, when blood Sample 44 was collected, to 7 October 2022, the start of Halep's Provisional Suspension. The
Professional Tennis Players Association continued to defend Halep and called the handling of Halep's situation a "disgrace", while the director of the toxicology laboratory at the CHU de Garches (and judicial expert for the French Supreme Court) has said "we’re condemning an innocent woman. We’re making a mistake." Halep stated she would appeal the four-year ban.
2024: Successful ban appeal and return to tennis Halep appealed the four-year ban to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on February 7, 2024. The decision was published on March 5. The Court agreed with Halep's contention that her positive test was likely caused by contamination of a supplement she had been using. Though the Court determined Halep did bear some level of fault or negligence for using the supplement, it did not rise to the level to justify a multi-year ban. Therefore, the Court's decision reduced the original four-year ban levied by the International Tennis Federation to nine months, which Halep had already served. Halep was cleared for immediate return from suspension. On 7 March, Halep received a wildcard for the
Miami Open. Despite taking the first set against
Paula Badosa, she ended up losing in three sets in the first round. Halep's next WTA Tour match was on 28 October at the
Hong Kong Tennis Open, where she was given a wildcard entry but lost in the first round to
Yuan Yue.
2025: Retirement Halep was awarded a wildcard for the
Australian Open qualifying tournament. However, she withdrew after experiencing knee and shoulder pain during an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi. After losing her first round match at the
Transylvania Open to
Lucia Bronzetti, Halep announced her retirement from professional tennis. ==National representation==