A beaming Simona Halep greeted members of the media shortly after she put the finishing touches on her title-winning campaign at the French Open. It wasn’t exactly smooth sailing; she dropped the very first set of her fortnight in Roland Garros, again in the Round of Eight, and again in the Final. And yet, in each instance, with the stakes rising exponentially, she found her confidence not shaken, but stirred. It was a marked departure from the way she competed under the klieg lights of Court Philippe Chatrier, when, up a set and three-love in the second, she gave in to nerves against a hitherto-unheralded opponent.
Needless to say, Halep benefited in no small measure from her failed experience versus the eternally optimistic Jelena Ostapenko. Even as her three-set defeat to Maria Sharapova on the same stage in 2014 introduced her to the demands at the highest levels of her profession, last year’s heartbreak strengthened her resolve. And then there was likewise her runner-up showing at the Australian Open in January, which gave her an up-close look at what fellow finalist Caroline Wozniacki needed to break through in a Grand Slam event.
It helped, of course, that Halep knew she possessed the skill set to prevail at Roland Garros, not coincidentally her favorite major. Her extraordinary patience, keen anticipation, and deceptive power all worked to her advantage on red clay, and the mind-set that nothing worse than a loss — whose pain she had already endured — could happen to her propelled her to rally from a set and a break down in the match. As she noted in her post-mortem, the deficit was borne of fellow finalist Sloane Stephens’ effort and not her underachievement; “I thought, everything is gone. I’m going to start to relax and enjoy the match.”
From that moment on, Halep displayed the brand of tennis that catapulted her to the top of the rankings. Stephens may have been the one with a major title on her resume, but she had the memories that allowed her to stay the course. And the rest, as the cliche goes, is history. Perhaps it was meant to be; the draw could have been much harder, but the usual suspects folded early for a variety of reasons. Perhaps she was fated to wait, and then win. “It’s a special moment. I’ve been dreaming of this moment since I started playing tennis,” she said. She was four then, a child inspired by her brother. She’s 26 now, a champion inspiring countless others.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994.
