LONDON: Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep has undergone nose surgery to improve her breathing and will not play again until next year.
In a post on Twitter on Thursday, the ninth-ranked Romanian wrote that she felt "completely exhausted" after her first-round loss to qualifier Daria Snigur at the U.S.Open last month.
She then decided to follow medical advice and have an operation to help her breathing issues that have affected her "for many years" and were getting worse.
Halep posted a picture in her tweet, showing her nose bandaged.
"I felt it's the right time to do it and also to do something for myself as a person," she wrote.
"That is why I did also the (a)esthetic part."
In the long Twitter post, Halep said she was close to ending her tennis career in February because she didn't believe she could get back into the top 10.
She said she rediscovered her passion for the sport after choosing to work with a new coach, Patrick Mouratoglou.
"2022, you have been an interesting year full of everything!" wrote Halep, who won the French Open in 2018 and Wimbledon in 2019. "See you on court, 2023! I feel I still have a lot to do on a tennis court and still have some goals."