Defending champion Simona Halep is in excellent shape at the Premier Mandatory Tournament in Madrid. The world number one in the Caja Magica sports complex has been undefeated for 14 matches. Simo” wants to win her first Grand Slam title with new composure at the upcoming French Open in Paris (from 27 May). A sports psychologist will also help her.
Maybe it’s a good omen that Halep’s mental trainer has the same name as superstar Serena Williams’ daughter – Alexis. But no matter how: With the help of the expert, the Romanian finally wants to defeat her final curse at Grand Slam tournaments.
The best would be the next major at Stade Roland Garros, where Halep won two of their three bitter final defeats in one of the four biggest tournaments: 2017 against Yelena Ostapenko (Latvia) and 2014 against Maria Sharapova (Russia). At the beginning of the year, the 26-year-old was about to be crowned again – but in the final spurt, the Dane Caroline Wozniacki won the trophy at the Australian Open.
So all good things are FOUR, if it’s Halep’s will. “I’m not obsessed with it now and I’m not making a drama out of not having won a Grand Slam title yet. But the demand for it is already great,” revealed the industry leader from Constanta in an interview with the “Sport360” platform and said: “Maybe I should stop thinking about it. If it happens, it’s good, and if it doesn’t, it’s not dramatic.”
Halep has been relying for some time on the help of a psychologist to fulfill her dream of a major coup. “Her name is Alexis. It’s nice to have someone to talk to about certain things. It gives you tips on how to deal with yourself and accept you if you miss a goal. I have already made progress in this respect,” Halep reported on the cooperation, which seems to be fruitful.
“I’m really having fun,” Halep said, “I’m happy, laugh more, life is more beautiful.” In Madrid, her positive aura on and off the court is unmistakable. The tournament winner of the past two years stormed into the eighth-finals of the event, which was endowed with a total of 6.69 million euros, with two clear wins over the Russian left-hander Ekaterina Makarova (6:0, 6:1) and the world ranking 16th Elise Mertens from Belgium (6:0, 6:3).
There Kristyna Pliskova (Czech Republic), the twin sister of former US Open finalist Karolina Pliskova will be waiting for Halep on Wednesday. The industry leader, however, has managed to “balance” her final opponent from Melbourne. Halep is currently on the cover of the “Elle” (Romanian edition). Wozniacki was already on the cover of the Danish edition of the lifestyle magazine in February 2017.
But that’s not all. During her speech at the award ceremony in the Rod Laver Arena in January, Wozniacki told her boxed manager: “Thank you for being there. And I hope you get me the title of’Elle’.” And she meant the international edition of the high-circulation fashion primer. Halep, on the other hand, pursues completely different goals…one goal – to be precise.