WTA: Player of the Year, Candidate Four – Simona Halep

The tennisnet.com editorial team picks its candidates for the players of the year on the ATP and WTA Tour. We’ll start with the ladies. Today: Simona Halep.

The number one personal player of the year? Congratulations, that’s original. But frankly, I would have chosen Halep as number 2, number 5 or number 22. This year “Simo” has shown what it is all about – and proved that tennis life is somehow fair.

She had previously reached three Grand Slam finals: 2014 at the French Open, where she lost to Maria Sharapova in a high-class match; 2017 again in Paris, where she led against Jelena Ostapenko 6:4 and 3:0 and even three break chances to 4th place:0 before the match tilted (and Ostapenko hit the ball); and 2018 at the Australian Open, where she defeated Angelique Kerber in the semi-final of the year and lost to Caroline Wozniacki in the final of the year.

While Wozniacki had defeated the major final curse, Halep was again only the second winner. In Paris, however, she struck: although she had already stumbled in round one (three-set victory over Alison Riske) and was also one set behind in the final against Sloane Stephens.

The 27-year-old’s finish on top position was already carved in stone this year before the WTA Finals in Singapore, an underestimated sign of her consistency. Too bad: the separation from coach Darren Cahill, who wants to spend more time with his family in 2019.

Especially a statement from Darren Cahill. “The pressure she’s been under for the last four or five years is hard to describe,” the Australian recently told Racquet magazine’s podcast. And told of a meeting with manager legend Ion Tiriac, Halep’s compatriot. “He took me aside a few times and said, “Listen, she’s got to win a major. The country needs this, we need this. Romania had difficult 30 years, the culture is rather negative. We don’t have a big football team – Simona is the biggest superstar in the sport we have. If she wins a major, that would change everything in Romania.”

You’ve already had enough pressure, Cahill says, “but if someone like him takes you aside and gives you a little more of it, you’ll feel it.” And if he had felt that already, then the pressure on Halep had been 100 times stronger. “How she handled it, I just have respect for it,” says Cahill.

What can speak against a player who for the second time in a row finishes the year as number 1 and had already fixed this position before the end of the year tournament? Not much. Maybe that Wimbledon (out in round 3) and the US Open (out in round 1) went surprisingly bad, although Halep was in a good mood with the victory in Montréal and the final in Cincinnati. Then, however, the back went on strike: Herniated disc.

Halep unfortunately ended her best year with four defeats. But that she didn’t start in Singapore because of her her herniated disc – maybe it’s one of those things that shows how Halep has matured as a player: by finally listening to her body. Because that’s what the greats of this sport all did at some point, if they wanted to stay on the tour for a while.