Simona Halep is rising the WTA rankings fast. Beginnning 2013 ranked 47 and reaching no.4 in the world by May 2014 it seems her well publicised timeout for surgery has not hurt her chances. It may even have helped them.

I started noticing her in 2013 when a friend pointed her out as a potential champion. I liked her from the first match I watched. Anyone can run and hit a ball, not so many can think and enjoy using their mind to outsmart an opponent.

It is this set of qualities that I feel attribute to a remarkable statistic:

Halep first broke into the world’s top 50 at the end of 2012, and won her first 6 WTA titles in the same calendar year in 2013 (a feat that was last achieved by Steffi Graf in 1986 when she won her first 7), Wikipedia

From January 2014, Simona Halep is coached by Wim Fissette, former coach of Kim Clijsters and Sabine Lisicki.^[45] She is managed by Virginia Ruzici,^[8] Her current fitness coach is Teo Cercel.

In the past, Halep was coached by Adrian Marcu,^[46] Andrei Mlendea and Firicel Tomai.

Halep won the Junior Girls French Open in 2008