Simona Halep admits she is a bit nervous about post-tennis life but also reveals one of her goals for the future is to become a mother and have a wonderful family.
On Tuesday, the former world No. 1 lost to Lucia Bronzetti 1-6 1-6 in the Cluj-Napoca first round and then announced that she was retiring in front of her home fans.
For the Romanian, it was only her fifth tournament since returning to tennis last March.
While Halep fought hard to clear her name in her doping case, she sustained a very serious knee injury early in her comeback – she was advised to undergo surgery – and that’s when she realized that it was time for her to walk away from the game.
Simona Halep© Transylvania Open/Instagram – Fair Use
Now in what will be the second chapter of her life, she wants to give herself to some other things.
“I want to be a mother. A good mother, like my mother. I want to have kids when the time is right,” the 33-year-old told Romanian publication Treizecizero.
“But I also want to be normal. Because for these 30 years that I’ve been playing, I was a high-performance athlete—I wasn’t a normal person. And now, it’s time to discover other things in life.”
Halep on if she is nervous about the next period of her life
“Of course, I do—how could I not? I’m an emotional person. I even get nervous when I go to a party. I’ve talked to other players, and it seems like everyone faces this fear of what comes next,” she added.
“I’m not afraid, though—I feel like I’ll manage… I don’t want responsibility anymore. I don’t want plans. I don’t want a strict schedule.”
In the same interview, the former two-time Grand Slam winner revealed she would stay physically active by going to the gym and also shared that she was hoping to get to play some golf.
Meanwhile, Halep married Romanian businessman Toni Iuruc in 2021 but the went their separate ways after only year and a half of their marriage in 2022.
Tennis World USA