Simona Halep carved a slice of history as she completed seven years in the Top 10 of WTA rankings. This is the 346th consecutive week that the Romanian has been ranked inside the Top 10.
It is the eighth-best rankings streak in WTA history, behind those set by some all-time greats: Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Stefanie Graf, Gabriela Sabatini, Pam Shriver, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, and Hana Mandlikova.
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“This news is huge, it’s an honor,” Halep told WTA Insider this week from Adelaide, Australia, where the 29-year-old is preparing for the start of her 2021 season. “This will make me smile all day today, maybe all week.”
“I’m looking for perfection, that’s for sure,” she added.
7 years ago today I made my Top 10 debut. 346 weeks later I’m still there 😝
What a wild, beautiful journey it has been, feeling very proud of this streak and excited for what’s ahead 🙃 pic.twitter.com/RvD8UzGMc4
— Simona Halep (@Simona_Halep) January 28, 2021
“But at the same time, I know perfection doesn’t exist. So I could accept my imperfection many times and try to get it closer to perfection. Maybe reaching all the time for perfection made me push my limits higher.”
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Of the current players, the next closest streak for consecutive weeks in the Top 10 belongs to Karolina Pliskova (209, since the week of September 12, 2016) and Elina Svitolina (173, since the week of May 22, 2017).
“Consistency becomes different from player to player,” the Romanian said. “You never know the mentality of the player.”
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Halep, who has been ranked No 1 in the world for a total of 64 weeks, is one of the feistiest players on the tour. She made her Grand Slam breakthrough at Roland Garros, winning the 2019 French Open title. She followed it up by winning Wimbledon 2019.
“My goal was not just to win a tournament or a Slam,” the World No 2 said.
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“Of course, every player in the top wants to win a Grand Slam. I wanted that badly. I wanted to be No.1 badly. But it came as a package, not as the one focus. I think that’s why I could be consistent over the years.”
In all, Halep has reached 30 WTA singles finals in that stretch, the most of any WTA player ahead of Karolina Pliskova (29) and Serena Williams (23).
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Since making her Top 10 debut, Halep owns a record of 293-97 (.751), a match win percentage topped by only Serena Williams (204-34, .857) and Bianca Andreescu (40-12, .769).
