Her coach Darren Cahill did not expect Simona Halep to qualify for the WTA final in 2017 after the difficult preparations for the season.
Darren Cahill had a lot of time during the US Open to work as a TV expert. The Australian coach from Simona Halep was only allowed to persuade his protégé in round one – and only from the stands. After all, coaching at Grand Slam events is not allowed. Due to adverse circumstances at the beginning of the year, Cahill was unable to foresee that Halep could finally make the leap to the tennis throne after having missed several chances.
“Simona has had problems with the patella tendon since November, December last year, from which she has not recovered easily,”said Cahill in an interview with The New York Times,”so we started the year with this knee injury, which had not healed completely, thinking it was good. Then it wasn’t.”
Halep couldn’t have really picked up momentum until the tournament in Miami,”We had a long conversation before the start of Miami,”continued Cahill,”namely that this year could be a year of restarting. And that we concentrate on different things when the athlete and tennis player get better and don’t think too much about the race to Singapore” Simona Halep won the race.
What is still missing is the great title for the Romanian player. In 2017, it would be within the realm of possibility, especially in Paris, where Halep lost the final against Yelena Ostapenko. Whether there will be such great opportunities again in the future is unclear, after all, Serena Williams is expected back on the tour at the beginning of 2018. And he trusts Darren Cahill with everything.
“According to all I know, she’ll be a problem for all the players,”said Cahill,”I don’t think Serena will come back and only be at 50 percent. Not good news for Simona Halep, by the way: Serena Williams first beat her, and then in 2014 in the WTA finals in the group matches. Only to go down in the final against the 23-times major champion.