FINALLY A CHAMPION
After years of heartbreak in the Grand Slams, Halep holds her nerve and is...
SIMONA HALEP was so desperate to join the ever-changing ranks of women’s Grand Slam winners that she could barely hold her racket as she tried to serve out the French Open final. There had been six different champions in six Major finals prior to yesterday, and it was starting to look like a travesty that she, the world No 1, was not among them. At 2-0 down in the second set, it looked like the agony would go on for the 26-year-old Romanian. In the nick of time, however, she recovered her composure, winning 12 of the next 15 games to finally romp home 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 against US Open champion Sloane Stephens in a shade over two hours. After performing the now obligatory scaling of the stands to embrace her family and coach, she revealed her acute stress levels at the end. ‘In the last game I felt that I could not grip (the racket) any more, so I just tried not to repeat the last year,’ said Halep (right), recalling her shock defeat to Jelena Ostapenko in the corresponding match of 2017. ‘I have been dreaming of this moment since I started to play tennis. When I was down a break in the second set I said: “OK, everything is gone. I just have to start to relax and enjoy the match”.’ That she managed to do so is why she broke the sequence of three losing Grand Slam finals, which had threatened to become an alarming habit. When she faced Caroline Wozniacki in the championship match of the Australian Open, they were both trying to rid themselves of the status as best female player not to win a Major.
Halep ended up stuck with that description in Melbourne but no more, and having shaken off the shackles of her own expectations it would be no surprise if she wins several more in a very open era for the women’s game.
They come from varied points of the compass and Halep is from the Black Sea city of Constanta — the venue for last year’s controversial Fed Cup tie, where she led the home team to victory over Great Britain in a match best remembered for the outrageous behaviour of Romania captain Ilie Nastase.
Of the six previous Major winners — Angelique Kerber, Serena Williams, Ostapenko, Garbine Muguruza, Stephens and Wozniacki — yesterday’s opponent was one of the less expected on the list. That piled more pressure on the Romanian, and it showed as she wrestled with her nerves in a high quality first set when the American did a fair impression of a human wall.
Stephens, like Halep an exceptionally good mover, looked impregnable until the favourite started striking out to penetrate her defences, adding more variety to what can be a somewhat repetitive baseline game.
The key point was at 4-4, 30-30 in the second set, when Halep held serve before breaking to level the match. And after that the confidence seeped into her as the toll of the physical battle began to undermine the footwork of Stephens.
The abrasive American later complained about her press coverage, calling the media her ‘biggest haters’. She said: ‘Can I just state for the record that all of you guys were tweeting that I had a losing record anywhere except for the United States. So I think I have done very well to make the finals of the French Open. So if any of you want to tweet that, I would be very happy to give you a retweet or something.’ MARIA BUENO, South America’s most decorated female player and a threetime Wimbledon champion, has died aged 78. The Brazilian won Wimbledon in 1959, 1960 and 1964 — and would also go on to win four US Opens.