“Everything I did in life, until now, was just for tennis. Nothing else mattered. That’s why it became too much, maybe. That’s why I suffered,” Simona Halep says intently on a midwinter afternoon in Bucharest. We sit in a corner of a restaurant where the clinking of cutlery provides a refined backdrop to the raw immediacy of a rare interview with the world No 1.
There is snow on the ground outside but only warmth from Halep. Beyond her burning intensity she smiles with relief. “There is no pressure now. I feel lighter. I feel better. I wouldn’t have been this relaxed if I hadn’t won the French Open. A big weight is off my shoulders.”
Written by Donald McRae
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jan/07/simona-halep-dream-best-tennis-donald-mcrae-interview under the title “Simona Halep: ‘My dream was to be the best. I did everything for tennis’”. Bolchha Nepal is not responsible or affiliated towards the opinion expressed in this news article.
