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Wimbledon 2019: From listlessness to legend, Simona Halep’s star continues to burn brightest

After splitting with her coach, the Romanian's route to becoming the dominant player of the past two years has not been simple

Paul Newman
Wimbledon
Monday 15 July 2019 07:17 BST
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Wimbledon Championships in numbers

Wimbledon champion, French Open champion, Australian Open runner-up, world No 1. No other woman can match Simona Halep’s achievements in the last two years and the 27-year-old Romanian already knows her next target.

“An Olympic medal,” Halep said here on Saturday night in the wake of her remarkable 6-2, 6-2 victory over Serena Williams in her first Wimbledon final. “I said that at the beginning of the year and I still keep it.

“I want to win any medal in the Olympics to fulfil everything I have done in tennis. It is a chance to play for my country. I have always loved to do that, playing in all the Fed Cup matches. The disappointment from this year [when Romania lost to France in the Fed Cup semi-finals] really hurt me, so to play to well to get a medal, it would be a dream.”

Despite her many triumphs, the last nine months have not always been easy for Halep. Darren Cahill, the Australian coach who turned her from a Grand Slam runner-up into a champion, told her at the end of last year that he needed to take a break from touring and coaching in order to spend more time with his family.

Exhausted, Halep took a lengthy break during the off-season. “I enjoyed life,” she said. “I went out, spent time with friends and went on holidays. I switched off from tennis for about two months because I felt exhausted. I was injured as well.”

By the start of the 2019 season, Halep had still not found a new coach. She then had a trial with the Belgian Thierry van Cleemput which lasted less than a month. After a modest start to the year, including a fourth-round loss to Williams at the Australian Open, it was not until March that Halep recruited Daniel Dobre, a Romanian coach with whom she had worked previously.

“I felt a bit lost when Darren told me we were going to split but I was also confident,” Halep said. “I knew if I put into practice what he had told me during the three or four years when we were together, I had a better chance to be good on court. We split, but we are still talking and he is my friend who is by my side all the time. He came to watch the matches, so he still gives me advice – but friendly advice.”

Simona Halep thrashed 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams 6-2 6-2

Might she get back together with Cahill in the future? “I hope so,” Halep said. “Let’s hope this result will bring him back. He said in Australia he might be ready to come back in May time, but he didn’t. He was not ready.”

It had been a fall-out with Cahill two summers ago that turned Halep’s career around. She had already lost in two Grand Slam finals and after her petulant defeat to Johanna Konta at the 2017 Miami Open, Cahill quit. They reunited later in the year and Halep now admits that Cahill’s criticisms of her negativity proved to be a turning point.

“I accepted that I needed help in that direction,” she said. “I accepted I am like that and I don’t have to make big changes, just understand what is going wrong during those moments. Once I accepted that and understood that, I could work on them and change some things.”

Simona Halep reacts to her victory (Reuters)

She added: “I was too negative. I could not see the things I was doing great. I was just doing badly. Once you start thinking like that, you start to go further down mentally.”

Nevertheless, Halep’s achievement in becoming the first Romanian of either sex to win a singles title here came after some disappointments this spring. She lost in finals in Doha and Madrid, was knocked out by 17-year-old Amanda Anisimova in the quarter-finals of the French Open and lost to Angelique Kerber in Eastbourne in her only warm-up tournament before Wimbledon.

Had Dobre singled out Wimbledon as a target for her this summer? “Maybe he adjusted the practices in the direction of making them a bit more aggressive so that I played better on grass,” she said. “But I never thought about it 100 per cent seriously. Every tournament I play I take 100 per cent seriously, so I was not thinking about Wimbledon two months ago or grass courts.”

Simona Halep poses with the Venus Rosewater trophy (Getty)

Halep said there had been a British dimension to her success at Wimbledon in that her regular hitting partner was Tom Thelwall-Jones, a 19-year-old from North Wales who is currently at the University of Tulsa on a tennis scholarship.

“He is a great guy,” Halep said. “At the practice desk, they recommended him. I liked him and I kept him. If I feel good with the person and relaxed on court, I try to hit with the same person every day. That is not something that happens all of the time.”

Halep does not think her Wimbledon victory will change her attitude going forward. “I just feel happy and confident and that I am able to play everywhere,” she said. “It can be a good boost for me mentally in the tournaments I have coming up, but tomorrow is a new day and we have to start working again.”

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