Romanian tennis ace Simona Halep is now third in the WTA rankings of best women's tennis players in the world, up from the fifth place. She has 5,970 points, and 20 played tournaments in the last 12 months.

Halep won her third title of 2016 on Sunday, after a 7-6(2), 6-3 victory at the Rogers Cup tournament in Montreal, Canada. She also played the Rogers Cup final last year but was forced to retire due to heat illness.

Serena Williams is still the number 1 player in the world with 8,300 points and 16 played tournaments, followed by German Angelique Kerber with 6,745 points.

The top ten is completed by Spanish Garbine Muguruza (5,481 points), Polish Agnieszka Radwanska (5,340), American Venus Williams (4,010), Belarusian Victoria Azarenka (3,761), Italian Roberta Vinci (3,550), American Madison Keys (3,455), and Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova (3,060).

Besides Halep, Romania has three other players in the top 100, namely Irina-Camelia Begu – 31st, Monica Niculescu – 56th, and Sorana Cirstea – 90th.

Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu will represent Romania at the Rio Olympics, but Halep decided to pull out of the competition due to the risks posed by the Zika virus.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com