She has been ranked as the world No. A French Open junior champion and former junior world No. She won her first six WTA titles in the same season in , the first to do so since Steffi Graf in Halep finished runner-up at three majorsβthe French Open , French Open , and Australian Open βbefore winning her first major title at the French Open. From 27 January to 8 August , Halep was ranked in the top 10 for consecutive weeks, the eighth-longest streak in WTA history.
During this seven-year span, she finished each year ranked within the world's top four. She is a recipient of the Patriarchal Cross of Romania and the Order of the Star of Romania , and was named an honorary citizen of Bucharest.
She is also the first Romanian woman to be ranked world No. Halep is regarded as one of the best returners on the WTA Tour, while also building her game around controlled aggression and being able to hit winners from defensive positions. In February the ban was reduced from 4 years to 9 months, already served, and she returned to the tour at the Miami Open. Although her brother stopped playing the sport after a few years, Halep began practising twice a week until she was six, from which point on she practiced daily.
Although she focused on tennis, she also played football and handball while growing up. Halep is a former world No. The following year, Halep won all four ITF singles events she entered, including the Mamaia-Sen tournament which was reclassified to mid-level Grade 3.
The team finished in ninth place. Halep improved her junior Grand Slam performance in , her last year on the junior tour. She entered just four events that year. After focusing on professional tournaments, Halep returned to the junior circuit in May and won her first Grade A title at the Trofeo Bonfiglio without dropping a set. As the ninth seed, she defeated the fifth-seed Moore and the second-seed Rus en route to reaching the final without losing a set. Halep defeated compatriot Elena Bogdan in three sets in the final to become the second Romanian girl to win a junior Grand Slam singles title after Mariana Simionescu won the French Open.
