Simona Halep: ‘My dream was to be the best. I did everything for tennis’
The world No 1 on how winning her first grand slam finally lifted the pressure on her shoulders and allowed her to relax as a person
“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 mid-winter afternoon in Bucharest. We sit in a corner of a restaurant where the chink 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.”