Simona Halep tops $40 million mark in prize-money

MASON, Ohio -- Simona Halep joined Serena and Venus Williams as the only Hologic WTA Tour players to earn more than $40 million in career prize-money. On Sunday, Halep won the National Bank Open and collected a winner’s check worth $439,700, enough to push her over the financial milestone.  

Heading into the Western & Southern Open this week, Halep has earned a total of $40,107,097, a little more than $2 million shy of the $42,300,728 Venus made in her career. Serena has more than doubled that amount with a pot of $94,606,355 in prize-money.

Including the ATP, only seven players have earned more than Halep in their careers. Novak Djokovic tops the list with $158,996,253 in earnings, while Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Serena round out the top four.

Halep battles past Haddad Maia to win Toronto 

On Tuesday in Cincinnati, Halep began where she left off in Toronto. She knocked off Anastasia Potapova in a back-and-forth 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 match that lasted 2 hours, 11 minutes. The two players combined for 15 breaks of serve.  

Halep, a two-time Grand Slam champion who has spent 64 weeks atop the rankings, won her seventh straight match, a season high. On Monday, she moved back into the Top 10.

“When I started the year I was not very confident and I set the goal to be, at the end of the year, Top 10,” she said Sunday after her match. “And here I am. So it's very special moment. I will enjoy it. I will give myself credit. I'm just dreaming for more.”

That more could come this week in Cincinnati, where she is a two-time runner-up. Halep is next scheduled to play unseeded Veronika Kudermetova before a possible showdown with No.3 seed Paula Badosa in the Round of 16.