Simona Halep exchanged her fifth decade – Newspaper Kommersant No. 150 (7351) of 08/18/2022
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Former world No. 1 Simona Halep has crossed the $40 million mark in career prize money. This landmark event came about thanks to the recent victory that the 30-year-old Romanian won at a major tournament in Toronto. Previously, only sisters Serena and Venus Williams managed to earn such a large amount in women’s tennis. Yes, and in the list of leaders in tennis prize money, where men’s performance is taken into account along with women’s, Halep occupies a high eighth place.
About $40 million in prize money earned by Simona Halep, Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) informed two days after the victory won by the former first racket of the world in Toronto at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers WTA 1000 tournament. Having defeated the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maya in the final, the Romanian received $439.7 thousand, thanks to which the total amount of her earnings was $40, 1 million. And this was the reason for a separate article on the WTA website. Firstly, apart from Simona Halep, only two tennis players, Serena and Venus Williams, managed to exchange the fifth ten million prize money (see reference). Secondly, in the overall list of prize money in tennis, Simona Halep occupies a fairly high eighth place, behind only five men.
These, of course, include all of the so-called Big Four — Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Andy Murray — as well as 1990s superstar Pete Sampras, a 14-time Grand Slam winner. By the way, the figure of an American – $ 43.2 million – was unique for its time. It looks very solid even now, after over the past quarter century, the prize money at the main tennis competitions has increased approximately ten times (for example, the US Open prize fund has increased from $6 million to $60 million since 1995). It is for this reason that Simona Halep is well ahead of all the great champions of the past in prize money – for example, 22 Grand Slam winner Steffi Graf, who represents about the same generation as Sampras. Having earned $21.8 million, the German woman is only 17th in the WTA list, $4 million behind Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, who closes the top ten. But his long-term main rival – Spaniard Arancha Sanchez Vicario, who is in 25th place, is ahead of Graf by $ 5 million.
In the case of Simona Halep, of course, the fact that she left Maria Sharapova behind is noteworthy.
At first glance, this is quite surprising: after all, the Russian woman, speaking at about the same time period (suffice it to recall at least the 2014 Roland Garros final, in which Sharapova turned out to be stronger), won three majors more than the Romanian – five against two, and in terms of the total number of titles – 36 against 24 – it exceeds it by exactly one third. However, it should be borne in mind here that the peak in Halep’s career came in a later period – 2017 and 2018, when she was very stable and became the first racket of the world at the end of the season. And this is the key point in terms of tennis “inflation”. Take, for example, Wimbledon, where Sharapova, having taken the title in 2004, received about $ 1 million, and Halep 15 years later – $ 3 million. Or the Australian Open, where Halep earned $ 1.5 million thanks to reaching the final in 2018, even slightly more than champion Sharapova ten years earlier.
Simona Halep’s further rise in the list of the most successful tennis players in terms of prize money earned will, of course, depend on her performance. Having hired one of the highest paid coaches in the world – the Frenchman Patrick Muratoglu, the Romanian, despite the problems associated with injuries, is having a good season. She was in the Wimbledon semi-finals, returned to the top ten of the WTA rankings after the victory in Toronto and, of course, is able to overcome the gap from Venus Williams, which is about $ 2 million, as well as sixth-placed Sampras. However, 30-year-old Simone Halep, of course, will not be able to rise higher – bypass Andy Murray and even more so Serena Williams. For this, a short, but very combative athlete, who is a real fan of tennis in the best sense of the word, would probably have had enough motivation and even skill. But there is clearly not enough time.
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