Former world No. 1 Simona Halep retired from tennis on Tuesday, announcing her decision after losing in the first round of a tournament in her native Romania.The 33-year-old said she entered the WTA Tour event in Cluj to play in front of her home country's fans one last time to "say goodbye.

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.”