Boris Becker sends heartfelt farewell message to Simona Halep after her shock tennis retirement

Boris Becker penned a poignant farewell message for Simona Halep after the Romanian recently announced her retirement from tennis. Halep's announcement came as a shock, with the former WTA No. 1 explaining her decision to retire following a humbling loss at the 2025 Transylvania Open.

On Tuesday, February 4, Halep stepped out on to the tennis court for her first competitive match of the 2025 tennis season. However, the Romanian, playing in front of her home crowd in Cluj-Napoca, was blown away by Lucia Bronzetti in the first-round encounter. The Italian took only 59 minutes to register a comprehensive 6-1, 6-1 win. After the match, Halep made her shock retirement announcement.

Former ATP No. 1 Boris Becker later took to X (formerly Twitter) and reacted to the WTA's tributes to Simona Halep. One of the tributes featured a video montage of the Romanian's on and off-court moments, and the audio consisted of the two-time Major champion thanking fans for supporting her. In response to this particular post, Becker wrote:

"Congratulations Simo for your incredible career! Wimbledon and Roland Garros champion plus Number 1 in the world , many other trophies! The game of tennis will miss you! Many thanks for all your contributions!"

The other WTA post featured pictures of Halep celebrating her 2018 French Open and 2019 Wimbledon Championships title triumphs. In the caption, her WTA Tour-level achievements were mentioned. Becker delivered a one-word reaction to this post, writing:

"Word"

During her on-court retirement revelation, an emotional Halep explained why she took the decision to call time on her illustrious tennis career.

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"I’m making this decision with my soul" - Simona Halep

In Picture: Simona Halep at the 2025 Transylvania Open (Source: Getty)

Simona Halep was set to play her first match of the 2025 tennis season in the qualifying rounds of the Australian Open. However, she withdrew citing shoulder and knee pain. Following her first-round loss to Lucia Bronzetti in Cluj-Napoca, the 33-year-old told the crowd that she simply isn't in the right physical shape to continue competing on the WTA Tour.

"It’s a beautiful thing. I became world No 1, I won grand slams, it’s all I wanted. Life goes on, there is life after tennis and I hope that we will see each other again. I’ll come to the tennis here as often as I can and of course I will continue to play – but to be competitive it requires much more and at this moment it is no longer," Halep said.

Halep's career was marred by a doping controversy that kept her out from the sport for over a year.