WTA Finals: Simona Halep:”I’m addicted to tennis!”

At the end of the year, Simona Halep fulfilled her dream of becoming the world’s number one, and seems more relaxed than ever before. In Singapore we were allowed to talk to her in a small group.

By Florian Goosmann from Singapore

Simona Halep was the big bright spot at the end of the Media Day in Singapore. She beamed when she sat on the interview podium, beamed when she left it, beamed when she received a small round of German press representatives. She shone like a number one – which makes all the more sense because she really is.

Coach Darren Cahill played a major role in this, as Halep told tennisnet-demand,”He has helped me enormously to believe in myself and of course improved my game, especially the forehand and serve in the last few months. And definitely the mental area where I improved a lot this year. Here we had some hard times when I was very negative – I changed that.”

For the Australian, Halep is already the third top player after Lleyton Hewitt and Andre Agassi, and the calmness of an experienced coach and Australian tries to pass on Cahill,”He is simply totally relaxed and gives me a lot of self-confidence. He tells me that I am capable of being the world’s number one and winning a Grand Slam tournament – even if it has not worked so far. Maybe in the future, I was close this year. But his personality helps me to take things a little easier, including the steps I have to take in the future.”

In addition to Cahill on the team, Andrei Pavel has also been on the team for a few weeks now – but as far as the coming season is concerned, there’s nothing fixed yet “I want him on the team – that’s what we want. He’s a good guy and my teen idol. I still have his sweatband from the French Open 2008. He gives me energy, we have a similar style, both from Romania… As a younger player, Pavel also had a similarly negative attitude and helped her to think positively when she lost.

Halep (“Maybe a Grand Slam victory…”), but there is an idea for the spring: a training camp with Andre Agassi and his fitness guru Gil Reyes in Las Vegas, like this year:”Maybe in the frame of Indian Wells”, Halep said.”Darren has good connections to the two, it would be great to work with Gil again. He invented his fitness studio himself, everything is different. I spent about ten days there, and they were hard, after that I was dead. But it helped me a lot for the rest of the year:” Besides fitness, she wants to continue working on the serve, leg work – and slice.”I need it,”says Halep, who could conveniently ask for help in Las Vegas, but doesn’t want to make any comparisons.”Steffi’s slice is too good.”

Another Halep’s plan that will delight her German fans:”I have reached two semi-finals, Laura Siegemund has beaten me every time, she plays great there. Halep will have it in less than a week’s time – even though she won’t last long without a racket – “I’m sure I’ll get bored soon, because I love tennis – I’m addicted to it.”