Romania’s tennis star Simona Halep has lost four places in the WTA ranking of the best women's tennis player in the world, and has fallen to the eighth position.

One of the explanations is that the Madrid Open tournament, which Halep won last year, is being organized one week later this year. Thus, the Romanian lost the points won in 2016.

Simona Halep hasn’t been ranked this low since 2014. She started this year on the fourth place. She hasn't won any tournament this year.

The other Romanian players in the top 100 also lost several positions in the WTA ranking. Irina Camelia Begu went down seven places, ranking 36th in the new list, Monica Niculescu lost three places, being at number 51, and Sorana Cirstea saw the biggest drop of 19 places, currently ranking 83rd.

American Serena Williams has remained number one with 7,010 points, followed by German Angelique Kerber – 6,945 points, and Czech Karolina Pliskova – 5,946 points.

Simona Halep began her Madrid Mutua Open title defense with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Kristyna Pliskova on Sunday. In the second round, she will play against Italian Roberta Vinci.

Sorana Cirstea also qualified to the second round after defeating Anastasia Pavliucenkova, and so did Irina Camelia Begu, who beat Elena Vesnina on Saturday. On the other hand, Monica Niculescu lost the match against Caroline Wozniacki on Sunday.

Tennis ace Simona Halep is the newest brand ambassador of Mercedes-Benz in Romania

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