Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep has announced her retirement from tennis at age 33. Halep spoke to the crowd after a first-round loss at a tournament in her home country of Romania on Tuesday.

Halep was a hugely popular first-time Grand Slam champion, well-liked in the dressing room and within the sport in general for her groundedness and apparent lack of ego. Her desperation to win a major was well known and after Halep won in Paris, Martina Navratilova joked: “It wasn’t a monkey off her back; this was an 800lb gorilla.”

(Reuters) -Former world number one and two-time Grand Slam winner Simona Halep announced her retirement from professional tennis on Tuesday after losing in the first round at her home event in Cluj. Halep,