Simona Halep joins Serena Williams, Venus Williams in career earnings milestone

Former world No. 1 Simona Halep has become the third WTA player in tennis history to surpass $40 million in career earnings, joining Serena and Venus Williams.

Following Halep’s triumph in Toronto, she now has $40,107,097 in career earnings.

Also, Halep is the eighth tennis player ever to have surpassed $40 million in career earnings.

The Big Three – Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic – have all earned well over $100 million in career earnings.

Serena is the fourth on the list with $94,606,355, while her sister Venus is the seventh with $42,300,728.

Andy Murray and Pete Sampras own the fifth and sixth places, respectively.

Halep likely won’t beat Serena’s record but she has a realistic chance of surpassing Venus and one day becoming the second player on WTA’s career earnings list.

Halep collected $439,700 in Toronto

On Sunday, Halep defeated Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-3 2-6 6-3 to win her third National Bank Open title.

By claiming the Toronto title, Halep also collected a $439,700 cheque.

“It’s never easy to play against [Haddad Maia],” Halep said after beating Haddad Maia. “She beat me a few weeks ago. I knew that it was going to be a good challenge and a good fight. So it’s been a battle today, and I’m really happy that I could actually be stronger in the important moments.”

Halep is now a three-time National Bank Open champion.

Previously, Halep won the National Bank Open twice in Montreal.

Now, Halep has also won the National Bank Open held in Toronto.

After winning it all in Toronto, Halep admitted she badly wanted to win the National Bank Open in Toronto as well.

“It makes it even more special because I really wanted to win it in Toronto as well,” Halep said. “Here there are many Romanians and they always come to support me. So I’m really happy that I could also win here.”