July was a great month for Romanian tennis star Simona Halep, as she won two tournaments: the BRD Bucharest Open on July 17 and the Rogers Cup in Montreal at the end of the month.

Her performance is the reason why her fans voted her July’s WTA player of the month, after a polling on Wtatennis.com. She got 84% of the votes, followed at a great distance by American Venus Williams with 9%.

It is the first time when Halep is voted WTA player of the month this year. German tennis player Angelique Kerber was the winner in January and April, Spanish Carla Suarez Navarro got the award in February, Belarusian Victoria Azarenka was the March winner, Spanish-Venezuelan Garbine Muguruza was May’s player of the month, and American Serena Williams was the winner of June.

Simona Halep went up two places in the WTA ranking of best female players in the world earlier this month, after winning the title in Montreal. She is now at number 3 in the ranking, after Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber.

However, Halep will play for Romania at the Rio Olympics. She decided to pull out of the competition due to the risks posed by the Zika virus.

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

(Photo source: Simona Halep on Facebook)