sports stars: simona halep

Halep started playing tennis at age four, in emulation of her older brother. She has self-described her playing style as being "an aggressive baseliner, while New York Times columnist Michael Kimmelman described her as "a scrappy player from Romania, short but with potent ground strokes and a scrambler’s talent.
She started the year with a final in Nottinghill, losing to Arantxa Rus, then defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open Junior Championships, before losing in the semifinal to Jessica Moore.

At the ITF $50,000 tournament in Bucharest, Halep eliminated former Roland Garros semi-finalist Sesil Karatantcheva in the first round, before losing in the quarterfinals to Sorana Cîrstea in three sets, 6–3, 3–6, 1–6.

She won a pair of junior events in May. First, she won the ITF $10,000 tournament in Bucharest against Stéphanie Vongsouthi by a score of 7–6(4), 6–3.[5] That was followed by a victory in the finals at Trofeo Bonfiglio, winning over Bojana Jovanovski by a score of 6–4, 6–1.

At the Roland Garros Junior Championships, she entered the main draw as the 9th seed. In the first round, she defeated Charlotte Rodier, 6–4, 6–1, and then Karen Barbat from Denmark, 6–3, 6–1. In the 3rd round, Halep won against 5th seed Jessica Moore, 6–0, 6–1. In the quarterfinals, Simona beat 13th seed Ksenia Lykina, 6–1, 6–2. In the semifinals, Halep defeated second seed Arantxa Rus 6–3, 7–5, and then won the all–RIn January, she reached the quarterfinals in the 2011 ASB Classic defeating Ayumi Morita and Elena Vesnina, but losing to the second seed, Yanina Wickmayer. She would go then to the 2011 Moorilla Hobart International but she would lose in the third qualifying round, in a decisive set against Magdaléna Rybáriková.

At the 2011 Australian Open, Halep qualified for the first time in her career in the third round of a tennis Grand Slam on seniors, beating the 24th seed Alisa Kleybanova, 6–4 7–6, before losing in straight sets to the 12th seed Agnieszka Radwańska and not progressing to the fourth round.
omanian final, 6–4, 6–7(3), 6–2 against 10th seed Elena Bogdan.