MY ACCOUNT
Simona Halep is confident she would know how to handle a Wimbledon panic attack after her traumatic recent Roland Garros experience.
The former world number one is ready for her first return to action at the All England Club since landing the 2019 title, having missed out last year due to a calf injury.
With the 2020 championships cancelled due to the pandemic, it has been a three-year wait for Halep to make another SW19 appearance, and plenty has changed in her life since then.
She married last year and has a high-profile new coach in Patrick Mouratoglou, who helped to guide the career of Serena Williams for almost a decade.
Last month saw Halep suffer an on-court panic attack during a shock second-round defeat to Zheng Qinwen at the French Open, and she was quick to speak about the episode immediately after the match, determined it would be an important step in moving on.
“Hopefully it doesn’t happen again because I didn’t like it,” Halep said in a news conference on Sunday, a day ahead of Wimbledon getting under way.
“It was coming from nowhere because I was leading the match. Probably just the pressure of the tournament, the fact that I struggled last year. I didn’t believe that I’m strong enough, probably.
“But now I feel stronger, and I feel that if it’s going to happen again, I will know how to handle it.
“It’s never easy. It was really tough to handle it. But lately everyone goes through this, with all the situation in the world. I will not be hard on myself that I was weak in that match.
“I just take it as an experience and as a lesson, so next time I’ll be better.”
Halep has a tough Wimbledon opener against Karolina Muchova, an unseeded player who has reached the quarter-finals in the past two editions of the tournament.
That match will take place on Tuesday, but it will not open up play on Centre Court.
That is usually the honour afforded to the defending champion, but Ash Barty has retired since beating Karolina Pliskova in last year’s final.
Some felt that Halep, having missed out last year when she would have been returning to defend the title, should have been given the opening slot this year; however, Wimbledon announced the privilege will go to world number one Iga Swiatek.
“I feel sad that I missed it because I was injured and didn’t get the chance,” Halep said. “Hopefully I can have another chance, so I can look forward to that.”
She will need to win another Wimbledon title for that to happen and will hope the tie-up with Mouratoglou helps her achieve that ambition.
Mouratoglou said in an Instagram post that Halep’s results in the clay-court season were “insufficient” for a player of her quality and said he would “take full responsibility” for those.
“I was surprised, shocked that he did the post and took everything on him,” Halep said. “But it was not on him, it was me; I was not able to do better and to calm down myself when I panicked. It was new for me as well, and I was not good enough. We are much better after that day.
“We both probably learned some things about each other, and now we will handle better situations like those.”
