Everything Simona Halep accomplished by winning Wimbledon

Simona Halep had a historic fortnight at Wimbledon, clinching her first Venus Rosewater Dish with a stunning, 56-minute, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Serena Williams in the final.

Here's everything Halep achieved by winning Wimbledon:

She won her second Grand Slam title. Halep won her first Grand Slam title at the 2018 French Open, rallying from 6-3 2-0 down to beat Sloane Stephens in the final, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. But she hadn’t been past the quarterfinals of any Grand Slams since then—until now.

"I managed pretty well after winning the French Open, even if I was a little bit exhausted in the end of last year," Halep said. "I took a big holiday, a long holiday, then I said it's a chill year. But I meant I wanted to relax as a person, not as a player. I still work hard for every day, every match, every tournament. That's why I was able to win this tournament.

"I can't describe how I feel winning Wimbledon. It's pretty special."

She's now 2-3 in Grand Slam finals. Halep lost her first three Grand Slam finals: to Maria Sharapova at the 2014 French Open, Jelena Ostapenko at the 2017 French Open and Caroline Wozniacki at the 2018 Australian Open.

She became the second Romanian player to win multiple majors. Ilie Nastase is the only other Romanian to have done so, winning the US Open in 1972 and the French Open in 1973.

She became the first Romanian player to win Wimbledon. The closest any Romanian got before Halep's victory was Nastase, who reached the final twice, in 1972 and 1976.

"The French Open is better known in Romania because of the two players from Romania who won it, and it's on clay—we grow up on clay," Halep said. "But Wimbledon, I think it's very special for every country. Here the tennis was born, let's say. It's all the rules, a very prestigious tournament, and that makes it a little bit different and more special. Thinking it's a possibility to win on grass is tough because we don't even have a grass court in Romania.

"But I knew if I was patient and worked hard, I'd get the feeling of the grass court."

She defied a 1-9 head-to-head record against Serena. Not only had she lost nine of 10 career meetings against Serena going in, she'd lost six in a row—and all three meetings at the majors.

She handed Serena the worst loss of her career in a Grand Slam final. With just three unforced errors in 56 minutes, Halep lost only four games to Serena. It was the American's worst loss in a major final in terms of games won. Serena had twice won just five games in a Grand Slam final—against Maria Sharapova in the 2004 Wimbledon final (6-1, 6-4), and against Sam Stosur in the 2011 US Open final (6-2, 6-3).

"I'm very sure that was the best match of my life," Halep said. "Also on grass against her it's never easy, so I'm really proud of my game today and the whole tournament."

She won her first title in almost a year. Halep's last title came at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, a Premier 5 event, on August 12, 2018. That was 335 days ago.

She became the shortest woman to win Wimbledon since 1981. Listed at 5' 6", Halep became the shortest woman to lift the Venus Rosewater Dish since Chris Evert—also 5' 6"—in 1981.

She moves from No. 7 back up to No. 4 After losing in the quarterfinals of her title defense at Roland Garros, Halep fell from No. 3 to No. 8 on the WTA rankings.

Returning to No. 1 may be within reach by the US Open, and definitely in the fall. Halep is defending 1,685 points in August, having won Canada and reaching the Cincinnati final last summer, but after those two events, she didn't win a match until this year’s Australian Open.