page_title: Simona Halep
section_title: 2011–12: Steady ranking, top 50
hierarchical_section_title: Simona Halep / Professional career / 2011–12: Steady ranking, top 50
caption_attribution_description: Day 2 of Wimbledon 2011.
context_page_description: Simona Halep is a Romanian professional tennis player. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles twice between 2017 and 2019. In total, she has been No. 1 for 64 weeks, which ranks tenth in the history of the Women's Tennis Association rankings. Halep was the year-end No. 1 in 2017 and 2018. She has finished each year ranked no lower than No. 4 since 2014 and has the longest active streak of being ranked in the top 10. She has won 21 WTA singles titles and has finished runner-up 17 times. Halep has won two Grand Slam singles titles, at the 2018 French Open and the 2019 Wimbledon Championships.
  Halep first broke into the world's top 50 at the end of 2011, reached the top 20 in August 2013, and then the top 10 in January 2014. She won her first six WTA titles in the same calendar year in 2013, and was the first to do so since Steffi Graf in 1986. This led to her being named the WTA Most Improved Player at the end of the year. Halep reached three Grand Slam finals at the 2014 French Open, the 2017 French Open, and the 2018 Australian Open before winning her first Grand Slam singles title at the 2018 French Open against Sloane Stephens.
context_section_description: Halep played almost exclusively WTA Tour events in 2011. She won her first career Grand Slam matches at the Australian Open, defeating Anne Kremer and No. 23 Alisa Kleybanova to reach the third round. 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. She also reached the second round at Wimbledon, losing in three sets to seventh-seed and defending champion Serena Williams. 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.
  Halep maintained a steady ranking throughout 2012, rising no higher than No. 37, falling no lower than No. 63, and finishing the year at No. 47 for the second consecutive year. She won just one Grand Slam singles match all year, which came at the US Open. She won more than two matches at an event just twice, the first at the Morocco Open where she made the semifinals in April and the second at the Brussels Open where she made the final in May. Although Halep defeated top seed Anabel Medina Garrigues in Morocco, she was upset by qualifier Kiki Bertens, who prevented her from reaching a third straight final at the event. The final in Brussels was Halep's first at the Premier level. She defeated No. 21 Jelena Jankovic and No. 16 Dominika Cibulková before losing to top seed and world No. 3 Agnieszka Radwańska.
caption: Halep at 2011 Wimbledon
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