Romania's Halep goes down to World No. 3 in WTA rankings

Romania's Simona Halep went down to World No. 3 in the world's rankings of professional women tennis players (WTA) released on Monday, after having retained the No. 2 spot for the past seven weeks (as of August 11).

Halep was surpassed by Russian Maria Sharapova, the winner of the WTA tournament in Beijing, where the Romanian player has withdrawn in the quarterfinals because of an injury. U.S. player Serena Williams is still at top of the WTA rankings, while Petra Kvitova (the Czech Republic) is No. 4, just 120 points behind Simona Halep.

Romania's Monica Niculescu dropped four positions to No. 45, while Irina Begu gained a position to No. 61. Sorana Cirstea is still No. 101, and Alexandra Dulgheru climbed to No. 105.

In the doubles, Monica Niculescu went up one position to No. 38, while Raluca Olaru jumped 11 places to No. 64.AGERPRES