Simona Halep Achieves Unique Tennis Record That Even Serena Williams Couldn’t Match

Yesterday, the two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep completed an astonishing seven consecutive years in the Top-10 WTA rankings. Since making her WTA Top-10 debut on January 27, 2014, Halep has spent 346 successive weeks inside the Top-10.

The Romanian tennis star ranks 8th on the list of most consecutive weeks inside Top-10 rankings in WTA history while former great Martina Navratilova tops the list followed by Chris Evert and Stefanie Graf. Out of the 7 consecutive years spent inside the top-10, Halep has been the year-end No. 1 twice in 2017 and 2018.

Simona Halep – Seven-year streak

After hearing the news, Halep spoke to WTA Insider in an interview. Currently preparing for the upcoming 2021 Australian Open, Halep considered it an honor to have spent seven consecutive years inside the top-10, and believes her chase for perfection made her achieve the historic feat.

“This news is huge, it’s an honor. This will make me smile all day today, maybe all week… Maybe reaching all the time for perfection made me push my limits higher,” said Halep.

Since her Top-10 debut, Halep has won 16 WTA titles including the 2018 French Open and 2019 Wimbledon Championships. Halep’s consistency is a testament to her strong mentality and perseverance over the year. During the interview, Halep talked about striving hard to perform better every week since she was a 14-year-old kid and focusing her entire energy on tennis.

“My mentality as a player was all the time that I have to be permanently good enough to do results. I didn’t focus myself on tournaments or Slams. I focused every week on the work, every year to offer myself to this sport. Everything I did since I was 14-years-old was for tennis and my focus was to see how good I could be,” Halep said.

With the Australian Open less than two weeks away, Halep will aim to win her maiden title at Melbourne Park. Her best result at the Australian Open has been finishing as the runner-up in 2018. Ranked No. 2, Halep will compete at the WTA 500 event in Melbourne before the start of the Grand Slam.